431 


...Tib. 


THE 


School  Garden. 


SCHWAB. 


THE 


SCHOOL  GARDEN. 


A    PRACTICAL    CONTRIBUTION    TO    THE 
SUBJECT  OF  EDUCATION. 


BY 

PROF.   ERASMUS   SCHWAB, 

DIRECTOR  OF  THE  MILITARY  COLLEGE  OF  VIENNA. 


TRANSLATED   FROM   THE    FOURTH   GERMAN   EDITION   BY 

MRS.  HORACE  MANN. 


NEW  YORK: 
M.    L.    HOLBROOK    &    CO, 

1879- 


COPYRIGHT. 
By  M.  L.  HOLBROOK. 

1879. 


TRANSLATOR'S    PREFACE. 


The  "  School  Gardens,"  by  Dr.  Schwab,  is  a  little 
book  that  seems  to  come  most  opportunely  to  this  coun- 
try, just  as  the  minds  of  educators  are  at  work  upon 
the  problem  of  industrial  education  for  the  young.  In- 
dustrial education  for  the  adult  is  quite  another  matter, 
and  yet  its  foundations  should  be  laid  earlier.  Work- 
shops of  all  sorts  are  gradually  being  established,  in 
which  various  branches  of  industry  may  be  learned 
after  children  leave  the  grammar  school  and  high 
school  ;  but  the  aim  of  the  school  garden  is  to  make 
the  young  love  industrial  work — for  what  we  love  we  do — 
and  there  is  no  introduction  to  such  occupations  so 
charming  as  the  culture  of  flowers.  Thousands  of 
school  gardens  are  in  operation  in  Austria  to-day,  to 
say  nothing  of  other  places,  as  the  fruit  of  Dr.  Schwab's 
fertile  and  comprehensive  brain.  In  preparing  this  work 
for  the  American  public,  certain  adaptations  will  have 
to  be  made  to  our  different  institutions  of  society,  and 
our  different  plants  and  birds  ;  for  it  is  designed  for  a 
manual  as  well  as  for  an  exhaustive  essay  upon  the  sub- 
ject, in  which  light  it  is  of  world-wide  application.  Dr. 
Schwab's  own  animated  words  are  best  for  the  general 
consideration  of  the  subject,  and  the  reader  will  easily 
see  where  they  do  not  apply  in  practice. 

MRS.  HORACE  MANN. 
(3) 


AUTHOR'S   PREFACE. 


In  the  autumn  of  1866,  the  citizens  of  Olmutz  began 
to  lay  out  a  large  park  on  a  plan  which  I  had  pointed 
out  to  the  Stadtvcrordereten-Collcgium,  as  a  compensa- 
tion for  the  destruction  of  the  public  walks  by  the  war. 
The  lively  public  interest  shown  in  the  movement 
awakened  in  me,  then  a  member  of  the  Committee  for 
City  Improvements,  the  desire  to  plant  trees  and  culti- 
vate flowers,  and  the  endeavor  to  lead  others  to  share 
in  that  pleasure.  It  called  out  in  me  many  trains  of 
thought,  which,  according  to  one  of  my  nature,  were 
destined  sooner  or  later  to  become  acts. 

In  the  year  1870,  I  was  appointed  inspector  of  the 
German  public  schools  in  the  Circle  of  Olmutz.  The 
excellent  new  school-law  of  1869  decreed  that  with 
every  country  school  should  be  connected  an  experi- 
mental garden,  which  in  another  part  of  the  law  was 
called  an  experimental  field  (Versuchsfeld).  This  word 
was  such  an  unlucky  one,  so  general  and  yet  so  narrow, 
and  therefore  vague,  that  a  full  year  passed  after  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  law  before  it  was  understood  or  carried 
into  operation.  Although  an  idealist  through  and  through, 
I  was  used  to  results  in  life,  and  it  delighted  me  to  set  at 
work  my  little  modicum  of  organizing  talent.  Two  points 

(5) 


O  PREFACE. 




were  clear  to  me  :  first,  that  no  peasant  would  allow  his 
son  to  undertake  such  a  foolish  experiment  in  the  public 
school  as  to  learn  to  cultivate  a  field  with  plough  and 
mattock  !  In  the  second  place,  I  recognized  more  and 
more  every  day  what  I  instinctively  felt  on  first  reading 
the  law  :  that  there  should  be,  not  only  for  every  country 
school  but  fnr  every  city  school,  a  pleasure-ground  j  per 
haps  still  more  for  the  latter  than  for  the  former. 

WHY   I    WAS    INTERESTED. 

I  was  inspecting  one  day  the  school  of  the  little  vil- 
lage of  Redweis,  near  Olmutz.  The  region  around  it 
is  a  fruitful  plain,  a  portion  of  the  well-known  Hanna  ; 
but  far  and  wide  I  saw  that,  with  the  exception  of  the 
fruit  trees  of  the  house  garden,  there  was  neither  tree 
nor  shrub  ;  only  a  few  trees  in  the  streets,  in  a  few 
places.  I  pitied  the  children  of  a  village,  to  whom  the 
contemplation  of  nature  is  so  circumscribed  by  the  pov- 
erty of  animal  and  plant  life.  As  I  looked  out  of 
the  school-room  window,  I  saw,  outside  of  the  teacher's 
garden,  only  a  wide,  waste  piece.  The  thought  imme- 
diately took  root  in  me,  "  here  belongs  a  school  gar- 
den !  "  And  with  this  word  I  had  found  the  key  to 
what  I  was  seeking.  On  my  way  home  the  idea  of  what 
this  school  garden  must  be  was  clear.  I  went  imme- 
diately to  the  manufacturer,  Herr  Max  Machanek,  who 
possesses  a  happy  talent  for  landscape  gardening, 
which  he  had  made  known  by  his  good  plan  for  the  city 
park  in  Olmutz,  and  with  whom  I  had  been  visiting 
gardens  since  the  year  1866.  For,  I  thought  the  plan 
must  not  only  be  a  good  one,  it  must  be  beautiful.  I 
developed  to  the  gifted  man  my  thoughts  about  the  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  school  gardens  which  had  flashed 


PREFACE. 


through  my  head  like  lightning.  And  now  we  went  to 
work.  In  eight  days  this  pamphlet  of  mine  was  writ- 
ten, which  I  called  "  The  Public  School  Garden  ;  "  for 
at  that  time  I  did  not  dare  to  express  aloud  that  I  was 
thinking  of  gardens  for  all  kinds  of  schools.  In  eight 
days,  Herr  Machanek  had  also  three  plans  ready,  one 
for  Redweis,  and  two  ideal  ones  for  villages,  and  also 
for  small  cities. 

The  pamphlet  made  a  kind  of  epoch  in  Austria. 
People  were  charmed  with  the  text,  and  transported 
with  the  colored  pictures  which,  at  the  expense  of  Herr 
Machanek,  brought  out  so  beautifully,  clearly  and  loving- 
ly, the  idea  of  the  school  garden  suited  to  time  and 
place.  The  public  reproached  both  gardeners  for  having 
dared  to  surround  nurseries  and  beds  for  field  produce 
with  neat  borders,  /'.  e.,  with  curved  lines  !  As  to  the 
rest,  they  were  pleased  that  the  plans,  putting  to  shame 
the  time-honored  stiff  symmetry  of  straight  lines,  and 
avoiding  the  taste  of  modern  gardening,  had  an  easy 
grace  and  an  agreeable  harmony.  Thus  the  little  pam- 
phlet, plainly  the  birth  of  a  moment,  awakened  in  geo- 
metrical progression  the  interest  of  the  public  for  the 
founding  of  school  gardens. 

Tolerably  useful  school  gardens  there  certainly  were 
here  and  there  in  Germany  as  well  as  in  Austria,  before 
the  appearance  of  the  first  edition  of  this  pamphlet ;  but 
they  found  no  imitators,  so  that  they  brought  no  results 
except  to  the  person  of  the  teacher.  No  wonder  that 
many  of  them  soon  relapsed  into  a  wilderness  and  at- 
tracted no  attention  ! 

But  whence  this  sad  experience  ?  On  the  one  side 
it  may  be  explained  by  the  indifference  of  the  general 
public,  and  the  apparent  want  of  means  for  a  proper  lay- 


8  PREFACE. 


ing  out  of  the  gardens,  and  to  the  opposition  of  many 
communities  to  any  new  enterprise,  but  chiefly  to  the 
miserable  lack  of  instruction  in  the  training  schools  of 
teachers,  which  again  points  back  still  farther  to  the 
miserable  lack  of  earlier  school  legislation. 

On  another  side,  it  cannot  be  overlooked  that  even  in 
the  latest  times  there  was  no  clear  conception  of  the 
school  garden  on  German  ground  in  anybody's  head, 
so  that  no  one  could  come  forward  with  any  striking 
propositions  which  would  interest  experts  or  persuade 
communities  to  offer  the  place  and  the  means  to  lay  out 
such  gardens  in  reference  to  local  needs,  or  demand 
from  the  teachers  the  capacity  to  deduce  them  from  the 
actual  means  of  instruction  and  education,  without  dis- 
turbing the  corporate  organism  of  the  public  schools 
(volksschulen). 

Whoever  wishes  to  make  plans  for  founding  suitable 
school  gardens  must  certainly  be  an  idealist  and  have  a 
heart  for  the  people  ;  but  he  must  also  possess  the  neces- 
sary technical  knowledge  required  ;  he  must  know  life, 
and  be  acquainted  with  the  public  demands  by  his  own 
inward  observations  and  insight  j  he  must  have  had  in- 
tercourse with  all  classes  of  the  population,  and  must 
especially  be  acquainted  with  teachers,  and  be  himself 
a  school  man,  in  order  to  be  able  to  meet  the  question 
whether  his  plans  can  reckon  upon  general  sympathy 
and  furtherance.  When  the  author  endeavors  five  years 
after  the  first  appearance  of  his  pamphlet  to  give  him- 
self an  account  of  his  success,  whereby  he,  setting  aside 
his  individual  views,  has  won  the  general  confidence  in 
the  correctness  and  practicability  .of  his  plans,  he  finds 
that  a  concatenation  of  circumstances  has  enabled  him 
to  solve  such  a  problem.  His  studies  had  the  ideal  and 


PREFACE. 


also  the  real  life  for  their  subject — an  active  profession 
has  made  him  specially  acquainted  with  many  peoples 
and  countries,  and  had  tempted  him,  in  some  sort,  to 
speak  with  authority. 

In  Germany  and  other  places,  the  author,  on  account 
of  this  work,  has  often  been  greeted  as  a  hopeful  pupil 
of  Froebel,  and  passes  for  one  still  by  most  people.  I 
have  often  related  that  I  came  naturally,  as  it  were,  by 
my  idea  of  the  school  garden,  and  have  freely  confessed 
that  five  years  ago  I  knew  little  of  Froebel.  Since  that 
time  I  have  certainly  been  much  interested  in  him  who, 
before  my  time,  had  wished  for  a  school  garden  ;  but 
before  me  no  one  had  had  the  good  fortune  to  make  a 
propaganda  for  his  plans  with  any  result  j  then — were 
there  any  school  gardens  outside  of  German  ground  ? 

The  "  Public  School  Gardens  "  of  the  author  under- 
takes to  give  the  outlines  according  to  which  country 
and  city  school  gardens  should  be  laid  out.  According 
to  the  judgment  of  school-men,  naturalists  and  men  of 
practical  life,  not  an  idea  in  this  pamphlet  should  be 
neglected  which  can  be  brought  to  life  by  the  school 
garden. 

WHAT    IS    NECESSARY,    AND   WHO    FAVOR    IT. 

It  'is  very  striking  that  the  school  garden,  as  it  is  called 
to-day,  repeatedly  emphasizes  the  fact  that  not  all  the 
plans  are  everywhere  practicable  ;  that  the  necessary 
and  suitable  ones  are  chosen  with  tact  and  understand- 
ing ;  but  as  to  the  rest,  especially  where  there  is  no 
money  to  be  had  for  the  purpose,  it  must  be  given  up. 

According  to  the  advice  of  the  inspector  of  the  court 
garden,  Jager,  in  Eisenach,  from  whom  I  have  learned 
much,  it  is  best  that  the  garden  land  (grabe  land)  be 


I0  PREFACE. 


separated  from  the  other  garden.  Nursery,  experimental 
garden  and  vegetable  garden  may  be  laid  out  in  recti- 
linear beds,  but  masked  with  shrubbery ;  the  other  gar- 
den should,  at  least  in  cities,  take  more  of  a  landscape 
character. 

The  expense,  if  the  ground  is  af  level  one,  may  be  only 
fifty  florins ;  it  may  be  five  hundred,  indeed,  a  thousand 
or  more  if  one  is  not  afraid  of  the  cost.  The  best  argu- 
ment for  meeting  the  expense  is  the  numerous  school 
gardens,  which,  according  to  the  ideas  laid  down  in  ' 
this  pamphlet,  were  newly  planned  or  wholly  transformed. 
The  idea  of  the  school  garden  is  a  great  one  in  its  bear- 
ing upon  instruction  and  education  ;  but  it  is  also  a 
fitting  and  unanswerable  one.  That  national  econo- 
mists and  scientifically  cultivated  land-owners  promise 
the  school  garden  a  great  future  ;  that  naturalists,  that 
medical  writers  welcome  this  idea  gladly,  was  apparent 
from  the  beginning.  Also  prominent  pedagogues  sym- 
pathized with  the  proposals  of  the  author  immediately 
and  unconditionally.  Letters  from  the  most  various 
portions  of  Austria  and  Germany,  and  from  Italy  and 
England,  express  cordial  interest.  The  periodical  and 
daily  press  have  been  equally  favorable. 

This  unanimous  support  of  sober  and  of  enthusiastic, 
and  also  of  experienced  men  in  all  conditions  of  life, 
was  also  shared  by  the  unprejudiced  circles  in  Austria. 
The  Ministry  of  Instruction  in  Hungary,  all  the  school 
inspectors  and  normal  institutions,  have  taken  part  in 
the  public  school  garden,  and  given  it  their  earnest 
furtherance.  The  Royal  Imperial  Ministry  of  Agricul- 
ture have  sent  my  pamphlet  to  all  their  agricultural  so- 
cieties and  teachers'  institutes,  with  an  invitation  to 
notice  it  in  their  official  documents.  Thereupon  the  K. 


PREFACE. 


K.  (or  Royal  Imperial)  Ministry  of  Instruction  received 
"  The  School  Garden  "  for  the  teachers'  library  of  the 
public  schools,  and  required  of  the  normal  schools  the 
adoption  of 'the  practical  hints  given  in  the  pamphlet. 
In  1875,  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture  required  the  ad- 
ministrators of  public  property,  public  foresters,  and  the 
specially  rich  Greek  Oriental  Religious  Fund  in  Buko- 
wina,  to  further  the  founding  of  school  gardens,  which 
requisition  already  bears  fruit.  The  K.  K.  Ministry  of 
Instruction  has  repeatedly  granted  money  to  the  State 
Institutions  in  favor  of  school  gardens.  The  Ministry 
of  the  Interior  has  also  made  the  K.  K.  governments 
cognizant  of  the  bearing  upon  the  welfare  of  the  people 
and  the  country  of  the  systematic  founding  of  school 
gardens  as  explained  by  the  author. 

The  agitation  for  the  popular  idea  of  the  school  garden 
in  Austria  has  a  wide  field  before  it,  but  the  prospect  is 
very  favorable.  The  class  of  noble  landed  proprietors 
has  been  gained  over  in  most  places.  For  example,  the 
business  agent  of  his  highness  Duke  Albrecht  has  prom- 
ised his  co-operation  in  the  founding  of  school  gardens 
upon  the  numerous  domains  of  this  imperial  prince,  as 
soon  as  the  teachers  show  a  corresponding  ability  to  do 
it.  In  Galicia  a  very  energetic  district  magistrate  has 
excited  the  activity  of  the  nobility  in  his  district  in  a 
very  decided  manner.  The  K.  K.  Society  of  Husband- 
men in  Vienna  is  ready  to  promote  the  interests  of 
school  gardens  in  Lower  Austria. 

When  the  normal  school  of  Austria  and  Hungary 
shall  earnestly,  with  insight  and  circumspection,  pro- 
mote the  action  of  the  highest  boards  of  instruction,  the 
most  important  and  most  indispensable  step  will  have 
been  taken  to  make  the  school  garden,  with  all  the  bless- 


PREFACE. 


ings  it  will  bring,  the  common  property  of  the  people 
everywhere.  The  Austrian  Board  of  Instruction,  in 
fact,  already  admits  the  laying  out  of  suitable  school 
gardens  in  several  normal  school  institutions,  and  the 
Diet  of  Lower  Austria,  by  planting  school  gardens  in  the 
pro-seminaries  it  has  erected  with  so  many  sacrifices  in 
Vienna,  Neustadt  and  St.  Potten,  has  given  a  striking 
example  of  its  comprehension  of  the  idea.  But  real 
life  already  hastens  the  general  founding  of  school  gar- 
dens in  the  normal  school  institutions.  In  K.  K.  Sile- 
sia, the  Moravian-Silesian  Congress  of  Silk  Culture  agi- 
tated the  subject  in  a  striking  manner  by  means  of  a 
hand-bill,  giving  one  of  my  original  plans  for  small 
country  school  gardens,  and  the  K.  K.  Country  School 
Council  showed  itself  as  active  as  it  was  intelligent.  In 
other  countries  the  practical  result  of  my  pamphlet  soon 
manifested  itself  in  the  creation  of  single  school  gardens. 

The  Vienna  Exposition  of  1873  made  an  epoch  for 
school  gardens.  The  Austrian  model  school,  in  whose 
origin  and  prosecution  the  author  took  an  active  part, 
was  visited  by  thousands  from  all  countries,  and  since 
this  object  had  the  good  fortune  to  excite  quite  unusual 
practical  results,  the  subject  did  not  fail  of  its  influence. 
It  pleased  numerous  friends  of  schools,  and  its  general  dif- 
fusion can  no  longer  be  a  question  of  any  thing  but  time. 

The  Country  School  Counsellor  of  the  Moravians 
then  interested  himself  in  the  general  diffusion  of  the 
school  gardens.  He  demanded  the  help  of  the  K.  K. 
District  School  Counsellor,  and  expressly  the  State 
School  Counsellor,  for  their  co-operation  ;  he  sought 
out  the  Agricultural  Society  and  its  sections,  and  affili- 
ated meetings,  for  their  active  support  of  the  measure  ; 
and,  in  short,  he  allowed  the  plans  I  had  published  in 


PREFACE.  13 


the  two  first  editions  of  my  pamphlet  to  be  quadrupled 
and  spread  about.  Other  country  school  counsellors 
showed  themselves  friendly  to  the  idea,  although  in  a 
less  energetic  manner. 

GARDENS    ESTABLISHED. 

Of  the  school  gardens  laid  out  in  the  spring  of  1874, 
three  deserve  special'  mention.  That  of  the  Thomas 
School,  in  the  Neugasse  at  Brunn  is  one,  because  it  proves 
that  room  for  a  school  garden  can  be  found  in  a  large 
city ;  a  second,  in  the  same  city,  is  added  to  the  orphan 
house  for  boys ;  and  in  Vienna,  there  is  one  in  con- 
nection with  the  training  deaf  and  dumb  institution. 
Both  the  last  are  noteworthy,  because  their  aim  is  to 
create  means  of  instruction  and  education  for  unfor- 
tunate children  and  those  deprived  of  some  of  their 
senses.  In  1875  the  founding  of  the  school  garden  in 
the  K.  K.  German  Normal  School  was  a  specially  im- 
portant measure. 

The  Society  of  Public  Culture  will  have  a  school  gar- 
den in  the  most  beautiful  Alpine  regions  of  Austria.  It 
brought  its  influence  to  bear  upon  the  population  by  a 
circular  which  I  prepared  for  them  with  great  pleasure. 

FURTHER  ENCOURAGEMENT. 

That  the  little  pamphlet  appeared  in  its  second  edition 
at  the  Vienna  Exposition,  and  that  a  fourth  is  now  called 
for,  and  that  the  author  has  received  invitations  from 
foreign  countries  to  pronounce  discourses  upon  the  sub- 
ject, is  a  proof  that  at  present  everywhere  the  school 
garden  is  recognized  as  the  most  important  foundation 
of  society,  and  that  a  good  thought,  advocated  with  per- 
severance, has  not  to  wait  long  for  general  co-operation. 


PREFACE. 


The  idea  of  a  school  garden  is  already  so  obviously 
an  acceptable  one,  that  the  title  of  the  pamphlet  was 
changed  in  the  third  edition  from  "  Public  School  Gar- 
den "  to  "  Schopl  Garden. "  For,  it  belongs  not  merely 
to  every  public  school,  but  to  every  school — for  the  deaf- 
mutes,  for  the  feeble-minded,  for  orphans ;  to  every 
polytechnic  school  (real  schule),  to  every  gymnasium 
and  every  normal  school.  A  specially  neat,  well-con- 
sidered garden  belongs  also  to  every  kindergarten. 

School  boards  will  not  perhaps  everywhere  include  a 
garden  in  a  kindergarten,  but  so  much  the  more  should 
they  do  so  in  the  public  school.  In  reference  to  this,  the 
conduct  of  the  K.  K.  Silesian  Board  is  noteworthy.  The 
School  Counsellor  recommended  the  erection  of  school 
gardens  in  a  printed  document.  At  present,  Diet,  Min- 
istry of  Agriculture,  and  Department  of  Instruction, 
have  granted  supplies  to  every  teacher  who  takes  agri- 
cultural instruction.  These  courses  of  instruction  are 
inspired  by  local  school  inspectors,  by  district  school 
inspectors,  and  by  the  votaries  of  the  Agricultural 
Union,  who  are  appointed  by  the  local  school  inspector. 
These  last  men  belong  mostly  to  the  class  of  stewards 
of  landed  estates,  foresters,  proprietors,  in  short  of 
practical  country  owners.  In  the  inspection,  school 
gardens  are  specially  considered.  If  a  teacher  has  not 
put  his  school  garden  into  good  order,  he  receives  no 
subsidy. 

So  long  as  teachers  who  have  not  received  instruction 
upon  this  subject  in  their  training  schools,  work  in 
a  theoretic,  practical  way,  so  long  it  is  recommended, 
as  in  Austria,  to  make  them  adepts  in  the  matter  in 
the  autumn  session  of  the  Union.  But  an  adequate 
course  of  agricultural  instruction  for  teachers,  and  agri- 


PREFACE. 


cultural  instruction  for  school  children,  cannot  be  thought 
of  without  a  school  garden.  In  that  course  given  by 
the  Agricultural  Ministry,  on  which  the  subsidy  is  de- 
pendent, which  is  held  by  the  indefatigable  Director 
Janovsky,  in  the  six  weeks  autumnal  session  of  the 
Union  for  Silesian  public  school  teachers  in  the  Agri- 
cultural Institute  at  Oberheimsdorf,  the  founding  of 
public  school  gardens  is  made  a  very  prominent  feature. 
In  Barrzdorf,  half  an  hour's  distance  from  Oberheims- 
dorf, the  teachers  have  an  opportunity  to  see  a  little 
model  school  garden.  Besides  this,  Mr.  F.  Janovsky  has 
already  explained  how  to  work  out  a  plan  for  every 
school  garden  in  every  community  of  the  land,  free  of 
expense.  The  District  School  Inspectors  are  also  full 
of  zeal,  and  as  soon  as  they  find  anywhere,  even  a  par- 
tially suitable  place  which  the  community  will  give  for 
a  school  garden,  they  send  the  sketch  of  the  place  to 
Director  Janovsky. 

IN    SWEDEN   AND    FRANCE. 

If  the  question  is  at  last  started  whether  school  gar- 
dens already  exist  in  other  countries,  it  must  be  answered 
that  they  exist  in  Sweden,  which  to-day  numbers  two 
thousand  of  them.  The  author  first  learned  this  fact  in 
1871,  and  in  1873  had  an  opportunity,  as  official  report- 
er of  the  Exposition  on  the  subject  of  public  schools,  to 
look  at  the  Swedish  plans.  The  Swedish  school  admin- 
istration is  very  sound,  and  the  schools  are  in  a  high 
state  of  development.  She  has  already  gone  so  far  in 
the  establishment  of  school  gardens,  that  she  has  printed 
directions  which  enumerate  the  plants  to  be  used  in 
them,  and  gives  the  proper  explanations.  On  that  ac- 
count, the  system  is  a  little  one-sided,  as  their  gardens 


PREFACE. 


are  only  established  for  the  country  schools,  and  serve 
only  to  spread  agricultural  instruction.  I  shall,  there- 
fore, show  in  the  proper  place,  that  a  great  Swedish 
school  garden  contains  less  means  of  culture  than  a 
small  one  on  the  Schwab  system,  as  it  is  called  in  Austria. 
It  must,  however,  be  granted  that  Sweden  is  already  be- 
ginning to  share  in  such  fruits  as  I  wish  to  show  are  the 
after  results  of  the  school  gardens  upon  life  everywhere. 
Sweden  had  a  painful  experience  in  the  beginning  of 
the  enterprise,  as  the  teachers  of  that  time  were  not 
taught  in  their  seminaries  how  to  carry  them  on.  Nothing 
now  stands  in  the  way  of  their  universal  spread  in  Sweden. 

At  the  Vienna  Exposition  in  1873,  the  author  saw 
the  magnificent  garden-plans  which  have  beautified  so 
many  normal  institutes  in  France.  He  was  assured  by 
a  very  cultivated  French  school  inspector  that  France 
already  has  many  school  gardens.  I  acknowledge  that 
I  was  not  previously  in  a  position  to  know  any  thing  spe- 
cial about  school  gardens  in  France  ;  for  my  residence 
in  Paris  was  before  I  issued  this  pamphlet.  The  French, 
with  their  taste  and  their  peculiar  talents  for  gardening 
of  all  kinds,  have  also  the  gift  of  contributing  a  rich 
share  to  the  formation  of  the  idea  of  the  school  gardens. 

The  school  garden  needs  to-day  in  every  country  only 
some  advocates  of  intellect  and  organizing  talent  to  be 
before  the  end  of  the  century  participated  in  by  the 
commonwealth  of  European  nations.  In  my  view  it  is 
nothing  but  a  not  yet  recognized,  yet  precious  inheri- 
tance of  the  eighteenth  century. 

In  Austria  the  idea  of  the  school  garden  has  already 
become  so  popular  that  in  building  new  school-houses 
the  rule  now  is  to  appropriate  one  room  for  the  future 
school  garden. 


THE   SCHOOL   GARDEN. 


CHAPTER  I. 

'*  Nature  is  our  home  ;  to  be  a  stranger  in  it  brings  loss  and  disgrace  to  us." 
A   SCHOOL   GARDEN   TO   EVERY   SCHOOL. 

The  degree  of  carefulness  which  a  community  applies 
to  the  education  of  youth,  and  consequently  to  its  pub- 
lic schools,  is  the  surest  measure  of  the  moral  and  spir- 
itual standpoint  and  the  political  ripeness  of  the  people. 
The  teacher's  ability  and  independence,  as  well  as  his 
favorable,  material  and  social  position,  is  a  security  for 
public  prosperity,  culture  and  freedom.  The  public 
school,  as  the  planting  ground  of  the  welfare  of  the  na- 
tion, must  therefore  be  the  darling  of  the  community. 
That  it  is  already  so  where  the  task  of  the  school  has 
been  recognized  by  the  people,  is  expressed  by  the 
school  building  itself.  In  every  village  where  it  is  the 
pride  of  the  villagers,  it  is  the  most  beautiful  and  con- 
venient house  in  it. 

The  school  house,  like  the  church,  must  be  a  "  sa- 
cred "  place  ;  but  it  can  only  be  so  when  it  has  a  suita- 
ble location  and  surroundings.  It  should  have  an 
agreeable,  well-cared  for  approach,  a  worthy  exterior 

2 


l8  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN 

and  a  convenient  interior  united  ;  and  when  space  and 
neatness,  and  an  abundance  of  light  and  air  are  added, 
it  will  be  made  the  dearest  resort  of  youth. 

Great  and  difficult  in  our  day  is  the  task  of  the  public 
school.  The  requisition  is  to  educate  well-instructed, 
thinking  men  ;  minds  prepared  for  the  exigencies  of 
life  ;  self-governing  men,  possessing  sentiments  of  duty 
and  honor,  love  of  their  fellow-men,  and  the  power  of 
self  sacrifice — in  short,  characters  useful  to  the  com- 
munity. 

How  can  the  school  reach  this  ideal  ? 

In  the  cities  of  Austria  there  is  at  present  no  child 
that  does  not  enjoy  high  instruction,  for  eight  long  years, 
in  from  five  to  eight  different  classes.  The  teacher, 
since  he  has  before  him  only  children  of  the  same  age, 
can  in  this  long  period  of  time,  if  his  classes  are  not 
overburdened  with  numbers,  attend  to  the  individual 
needs  of  each  child ;  and  the  child  learns  from  such 
studies  as  natural  philosophy  and  geography,  so  much 
for  the  uses  of  life  that  he  must  be  incomparably  far  in 
advance  of  the  child  of  the  country  regions.  He  then 
enters  a  burger  schule.  This  has  been  the  case  with  the 
majority  of  the  children  in  tolerably  large  cities.  So 
many  cultivating  and  educating  elements  are  offered 
them  in  the  school,  apart  from  positive  branches  of 
knowledge,  that  the  scholars  far  outstrip  the  country 
child  in  preparation  for  life  by  a  greater  intellectual 
maturity,  capacity  for  acquisition,  and  self-reliance.  In 
the  city,  a  good  teacher  of  the  upper  classes  will  take 
time  to  draw  the  attention  of  his  pupils  to  the  manifold 
occupations  of  men,  accompanying  them  to  the  work- 
shops of  the  tradesmen  and  the  halls  of  the  manufac- 
turers. In  his  Wahrhdt  und  Dichtung,  one  may  read 


PURPOSE  OP  THE  SCHOOL. 


what  Goethe  learnt  in  his  youth  in  this  manner,  and 
how  much  importance  he  assigned  to  this  instruction  by 
observation. 

PURPOSE   OF   THE   SCHOOL. 

What  compensation  can  the  country  school  offer  to 
the  village  child  for  the  lack  of  the  manifold  incentives 
which  the  fortunate  child  of  the  city  finds  in  family  and 
school,  and  in  the  many-sided  influences  of  city  circum- 
stances ?  The  goal  of  education  is  certainly  the  same 
for  the  city  awd  the  country  school  in  all  essentials.  But 
how  different  in  reality  is  the  shaping  of  the  knowledge 
arid  capacity  acquired  by  the  one  or  the  other,  as  to 
choice,  measure  and  treatment.  This  difference  is  un- 
avoidable, but  it  surely  is  necessary  only  in  a  certain 
degree.  If  it  is  apparent  even  in  the  double  class 
school  (schools  with  two  teachers),  how  much  more 
pronounced  must  it  be  in  the  school  of  one  class,  which 
is  the  rule  in  the  country,  in  so  many  large  districts. 
Here  the  instruction  of  the  whole  offspring  of  the  com- 
munity, and  not  of  one  generation  alone,  rests  upon  the 
shoulders  of  one  man.  Ponder  this  thought,  and  one 
will  be  obliged  to  confess  that  this  problem  is  one  of 
the  weightiest,  most  unanswerable  and  difficult  to  solve 
of  our  day.*  Since  the  education  of  the  people  even  in 
cities  can  only  be  effected  in  the  midst  of  ah  abundance 
of  power  and  means  of  instruction  and  exciting  influ- 
ences, by  the  concentration  of  great,  well-organized  ef- 
forts extending  over  years,  the  question  arises  :  Is  not 
every  patriot,  every  friend  of  youth  and  man  in  duty 
bound  to  think  what  are  the  means  by  which  the  public 
school,  whether  in  city  or  country,  shall  reach  its  goal 

*  This  difference  does  not  exist  in  America.  —  TR. 


20  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

of  broadening  the  culture  of  the  people  in  a  manner 
worthy  of  human  destiny  ? 

There  is  a  key  to  the  solution  of  this  problem,  and  it 
is  found  essentially  in  a  just  estimate  of  the  value  of  in- 
struction in  natural  science.  Rossmussler  expresses  him- 
self thus  :  "  Mother  Earth,  with  her  materials,  powers, 
phenomena  and  forms  of  life  is  to  us  what  we  call  na- 
ture. This  nature  is  our  home,  to  be  a  stranger  to 
which  brings  disgrace  and  injury  to  us  all.  In  this  con- 
ception, nature  is  the  ground-work  of  human  culture  and 
morals.  In  these  words,  in  my  view,  lies  the  central 
point  of  human  instruction." 

The  shortest,  nearest  path  to  this  goal  is  the  estab- 
lishment of  school  gardens  suited  to  time  and  place.  In 
the  school  garden  may  be  comprised  far  more  than  half 
of  the  instruction  in  natural  history  and  science,  and 
specially  an  essential  part  of  the  science  of  the  home  re- 
gion. Here  and  there  good  school  gardens  are  found 
in  which  this  or  that  department  of  natural  history  has 
been  taught  with  more  or  less  skill,  and  which  have 
served  to  diffuse  many  useful  and  good  thoughts.  But 
school  gardens  which  seek  to  flow  in  all  directions  into 
a  unified,  well  thought  out,  consecutively  progressive 
whole,  with  a  plan  and  purpose  (all  that  is  good  and 
much  that  is  excellent  that  is  found  scattered  here  and 
there  without  reference  to  a  greater  sphere),  were  set  in 
motion  by  the  two  first  editions  of  the  "  Volksschulgar- 
ten"  and  by  the  Austrian  model  school  in  the  Exposi- 
tion of  1873. 

School  gardens  must  certainly  always  take  into  view 
first  the  manifold  circumstances ;  but  they  can  only  solve 
the  pending  problems  to  the  thinkers  when  they  follow 
out  not  merely  single  points  of  view,  but  starting  from 


O  UR  DEPENDENCE  ON  NA  TURE.  2 1 

a  verified,  clear,  sound  and  great  thought,  set  their  aim 
only  so  high  as  appears  to  be  attainable  in  a  human 
way. 

The  reason  why  hitherto  few  endeavors  have  been 
made  to  impart  to  the  people,  and  especially  to  the  in- 
habitants of  country  regions,  the  magnificent  acquisi- 
tions of  natural  science,  are,  first,  that  the  importance 
of  such  knowledge  to  the  people  has  not  been  suffi- 
ciently recognized  ;  secondly,  that  the  teaching  material 
for  this  instruction  has  not  been  properly  prepared  ; 
thirdly,  that  the  means  for  personal  observation  have 
been  wanting. 

OUR   DEPENDENCE   ON   NATURE. 

But  the  recognition  is  making  its  way  that  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  powers  of  nature,  of  its  manifestations  and 
its  elements,  is  in  a  high  degree  desirable  for  the  so- 
called  common  man,  since,  upon  the  right  use  of  the 
elements  of  nature  depends  the  welfare  of  the  whole 
people.  Much  has  been  done  also  to  popularize  natural 
history  in  the  last  decade.  Bock's  excellent  popular 
work,  "  Structure,  Life  and  Care  of  the  Human  Body, " 
covers  the  ground  of  the  school  wherever  the  German 
language  is  taught ;  and  German  acuteness  and  the 
German  faculty  of  teaching  have  already  produced  many 
valuable  means  of  instruction,  but, 

"  The  forward  glance  to  tasks  as  yet  unwon, 
Obscures  from  view  the  little  man  has  done." 

Yet  the  importance  of  instruction  in  natural  history,  so 
far  as  it  shall  benefit  the  man  of  the  country  regions,  is 
viewed,  at  first,  only  from  the  standpoint  of  its  utility, 
and  thus  far,  very  one-sidedly.  One-sidedly,  in  so  far 
as  this  knowledge  is  declared  to  be  merely  useful,  not 


22  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

as  absolutely  necessary  to  him  whose  existence  is  bound 
to  nature  by  a  thousand  inseparable  bonds.  He  is,  in- 
deed, dependent  upon  it  in  all  and  every  thing,  over 
which  he  is  to  be  master  in  many  points,  and  upon 
which  his  activity  is  to  be  directed.  For  while  nature 
must  be  his  friend,  and  an  open  book  for  counsel,  in- 
struction and  warning,  it  to-day  is  in  fact  locked  up 
from  him  by  seven  seals. 

But  the  knowledge  of  the  natural  sciences  is  to  the 
man  of  the  country  regions,  not  only  necessary  for  fu- 
ture practical  value,  and  as  a  point  of  union  for  later 
progress  in  useful  knowledge,  but  it  may  and  must  serve 
him  precisely  as  the  groundwork  of  a  universal  human 
culture.  And  here  we  stand  before  one  of  the  weighti- 
est problems  of  the  modern  school  garden,  before  the 
known  systematic  use  of  the  educating  element  that  lies 
in  the  natural  sciences,  for  which,  so  far  as  it  concerns 
the  education  of  the  masses,  the  magic  wand  is  to  be 
found  in  no  other  way. 

THE   GARDEN    SCHOOL   A   PLACE   TO    BE    HAPPY. 

That  this  use  of  natural  history  for  educational  pur- 
poses may  and  must  be  begun  in  school  gardens,  it  is 
the  design  of  the  following  pages  to  show.  A  proper 
school  garden  may,  must,  and  is  destined  to  be  the 
place  where  children  are  happiest  ;  it  must  be  the  dear- 
est spot  in  those  hours  which  they  do  not  spend  in  the 
school  room  or  occupy  at  home  in  work  for  the  school. 
To  be  shut  out  from  the  instruction  and  plays  of  the 
school  garden  will  necessarily  be  one  of  the  most  pain- 
ful punishments  to  the  child.  The  school  room  (and 
also  the  little  school  workshop)  and  the  school  garden 
are  to  be  the  whole  world  of  the  child  when  this  is  not 


ESTHE TIC  RESUL  TS.  23 

furnished  by  family  life  ;  I  mean  the  world  of  feeling 
and  intellect,  the  world  of  his  thoughts,  of  his  childish 
strivings,  of  his  dreams  of  future  activity.  The  eye  and 
heart  of  the  child  shall  open  here  to  the  beauty  of  na- 
ture, from  the  lowest  steps  of  learning,  and  at  the  ten- 
derest  age  ;  the  attention  will  be  first  powerfully  excited 
and  fastened  here ;  the  sense  of  order,  purity  and  neat- 
ness, the  sense  of  poetical  harmony,  and  the  intuition 
of  beauty  must  here  fall,  fertilizing,  upon  the  young  soft 
soul.  Here  the  interest  in  the  manifestations,  charms, 
and  treasures  of  home  nature  may  be  awakened,  in- 
creased and  refined  ;  and  here  the  cherishing  and  spir- 
itual power  of  insight  can  be  reached.  The  pleasure  of 
observing  carefully  and  quietly  must  be  sharpened,  in 
order  that  the  child  may  reflect  upon  what  is  seen,  that 
he  may  find  the  connection  between  effect  and  cause  ; 
and  here  the  faculty  of  sifting  and  rearranging  the  man- 
ifold forms  and  changing  appearances  of  nature,  will  be 
cultivated.  But  clearness  of  representation  is  the  first 
condition  for  the  intellectual  work  of  human  life.  The 
school  garden  will  be  peculiarly  a  school  of  correct  and 
specific  judgment,  of  circumspect  reflection,  a  fountain 
of  the  purest  and  most  innocent  joys  of  children  and 
youth, — a  communion  with  nature. 

ESTHETIC   RESULTS. 

Can  these  educating  results  cease  during  life  ?  Must 
not  all  the  children  so  trained  remain  friends  of  the  trees 
and  the  flowers  they  loved  ;  and,  therefore,  will  they  not 
be  the  friends  of  nature,  and  on  the  way  to  be  good  men  ? 
Will  not  the  destroyer  of  trees  and  the  tormentor  of 
animals  cease  in  the  earth  ?  Will  not  the  life-long  effects 
of  the  pleasures  enjoyed  in  the  beauty  of  creation,  and 


THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 


in  the  improvement  gained  in  the  school  garden,  express 
themselves  in  the  character?  Surely  a  new  race  will 
thus  issue  from  the  schools,  a  race  which  will  not  look 
upon  the  earth  as  a  vale  of  tears,  but  as  a  place  worthy 
of  human  industry,  a  beloved,  habitable  home,  in  which 
the  man  of  clear  mind  and  joyous  heart  shall  strive  and 
work  for  his  own  and  his  neighbor's  happiness. 

Will  not  intellectual  minds  and  moral  qualities  be 
developed  delightfully  by  rational  school  gardens  ?  -  The 
groundwork  of  all  civil  (and  human)  virtues  is  the  com- 
munity. Heretofore  the  man  from  the  country  has  enjoyed 
less  of  the  feeling  of  community  than  the  inhabitant  of 
the  city,  which  is  not  wonderful,  since  the  city  is  the 
home  of  intellectual  and  moral  culture.  But  where  could 
the  germs  of  community  be  planted  more  securely  and  vig- 
orously than  in  the  school  garden  ?  There  is  found  not 
only  the  common  learning  of  the  school,  but  common 
work,  common  pleasure,  and  common  play.  By  excit- 
ing the  sense  of  the  community  the  school  garden  helps 
essentially  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  people's  educa- 
tion. The  feeling  of  inter-dependence  will  lead  to 
common  action  with  the  neighbor,  to  companionships 
and  friendships  for  life,  laying  the  foundations  of  truly 
brotherly  relations  among  the  frequenters  of  the  school. 
When  once  the  men  in  a  community  shall  have  more 
pleasing  and  worthy  recollections  of  their  common  youth 
than  the  dancing  floor  and  the  parade  ground — not 
rarely  the  only  recollections  they  now  have  in  common 
— when  they  shall  think  of  the  sisterly  relations,  so  to 
speak,  in  the  school,  even  of  its  exciting  emulations, — 
then  a.  public  spirit  will  be  kindled  and  take  root.  The 
clear  perception  that  the  community  is  a  great  family 
with  an  inseparable  bond  of  union,  does  not  proceed  so 


A  PROBLEM  SOLVED. 


25 


much  from  the  school  room  as  it  will  from  the  school 
garden,  where  intercourse  is  unrestrained,  and  which 
can  be  seized  and  felt  by  the  soul  of  the  child  in 
all  its  depths.  These  school  gardens  should  belong 
also  to  orphan  asylums  and  to  those  schools  which 
children  frequent  who  are  not  yet  of  an  age  to  attend 
the  manufacturers'  schools  ;  they  will  be  under  the  care 
of  the  wife  of  the  teacher,  who  can  also  take  charge 
of  the  instruction  of  the  little  girls  in  womanly  occu- 
pations, when  once  the  school  garden  has  the  neces- 
sary enlargement  for  this  purpose.  A  good  school 
garden  will  also  offer  for  the  instruction,  by  observation, 
of  little  children,  the  richest  and  best  material,  and  give 
them  an  opportunity  to  become  acquainted  with  the 
plant  world  for  common  and  practical  purposes.  It 
will  destroy  superstition  in  the  people,  battle  with  quack- 
ery, help  to  banish  improvidence,  cultivate  love  of  na- 
ture and  confidence  in  her  teachings. 

A    PROBLEM    OF    EDUCATION   SOLVED. 

A  judicious  and  well  planned  school  garden  will 
surely  solve  an  essential  part  of  the  problem  of  the  peo- 
ple's education,  and  help  to  educate  an  intelligent  and 
circumspect  working  power,  which,  accustomed  to  ask 
the  what  the  how  and  the  why  upon  every  subject,  will 
cultivate  a  correct  judgment  upon  those  things  and  rela- 
tions in  life  with  which  they  have  to  do.  It  will  culti- 
vate also  reflective  and  active  natures,  from  whom  sul- 
lenness  and  indolence  stand  aloof,  who  have  made  their 
own  a  powerful  and  persevering  will,  because  they  have 
learned  thoroughly  by  their  little  labors  in  the  school 
garden  to  do  in  an  orderly  and  capable  manner  what- 
ever they  have  to  do. 


26  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

The  school  garden  will  not  only  take  care  of  the  gen- 
eral education  of  the  children  ;  but  will  do  duty  on 
other  points,  for  scientific  instruction  forms  only  a  part 
of  the  instruction  of  the  people.  A  lively  moral  feeling 
and  a  sound  religious  direction  are  impressed  by  it  upon 
the  youth,  and  thus  the  public  school  may  turn  out  a 
race  so  virtuous,  brave  and  thrifty  through  indepen- 
dence, as  it  would  be  difficult  to  produce  without  the 
help  of  so  beneficent  an  aid  to  progress  as  a  good  school 
garden. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN  A  PART  OF  THE  SCIENCE  OF  HOME 
AND  NATURE. 

No  one  who  knows  the  world  and  men  will  fail  to  see 
that  these  incitements  which  are  destined  to  determine 
the  activity  of  men  for  their  whole  lifetime,  are  the  most 
effectual  for  individuals  as  well  as  for  the  whole  race, 
if  they  are  brought  to  bear  upon  the  naive,  freshly  re- 
ceptive age  of  from  six  to  fourteen  years.  The  under- 
standing seizes  them  in  play,  the  fancy  receives  them 
gladly  as  material  and  nourishment  for  future  activity  ; 
enjoyment  soon  lays  the  foundation  for  persistent  pur- 
suit and  love  of  them,  and  for  future  salutary  use  of  them. 
The  lasting  influence  of  such  youthful  impressions  re- 
ceived under  judicious  guidance  and  in  the  right  way, 
is  incalculable. 

No  intelligent  man  would  make  an  agricultural  school 
out  of  the  village  school,  and  thereby  deprive  the  public 
school  of  its  peculiar  character  ;  but  is  it  rare  for  men 
to  feel  that  they  have  not  estimated  highly  enough  the 
incentives  received  in  early  youth  for  industrial  and 
technical  activity  ?  In  love  of  art  and  science,  and 
all  the  means  of  acquiring  a  reasonable  degree  of  the 

(37) 


28  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

power  to  cultivate  the  earth,  and  the  activities  and  call- 
ings connected  with  it  they  feel  a  deficiency  where  the 
country  child  is  early  led  to.  think  and  to  prepare  for 
his  future  life  occupation.  Let  us  here  ponder  upon 
the  saying,  Non  schola  sed  vita  !  Not  for  the  school, 
but  for  life  ! 

Ignorance,  prejudice  and  imperfect  action  have  for 
centuries  inflicted  wounds  upon  agriculture.  In  all 
lands  the  power  of  custom  and  of  inherited  privilege 
falls  heavily  upon  the  rural  population.  Whence  shall 
come  help  and  salvation  ?  In  order  to  enlighten  and 
cultivate  this  rural  population,  the  elements  of  agricul- 
tural instruction  must,  within  certain  wise  limits,  be 
brought  into  the  public  school.  Well  directed  schools, 
but  before  all  things  a  correctly  arranged,  progressive 
course  of  agricultural  instruction,  will  make  the  small 
landholder  and  the  rural  workman  capable  of  profiting 
by  good  popular  agricultural  books.  This  improvement 
will  cost  little,  and  country  towns  and  State  will  will- 
ingly defray  the  expense. 

The  country  public  school  can  bring  in  this  elementary 
knowledge  without  neglecting  aims  of  its  own,  elsewhere 
recognized  in  this  essay,  but  it  must  do  this  if  the  State 
comprehends  rightly  the  interests  of  its  tax-payers. 
Even  the  smallest  village  school  can  solve  this  problem, 
and  at  surprisingly  little  cost. 

WHAT   AN    EXPERIMENT   GARDEN    DOES. 

The  country  school  already,  by  law,  contains  a  portion 
of  the  school  garden,  the  little  "  experiment  garden  for 
boys."  This  experiment  garden  has  in  general  a  three- 
fold aim.  It  serves  in  the  first  place  for  the  cultivation 
of  useful  plants  of  all  kinds — cereals,  and  economic 


AN  EXPERIMEET  GARDEN. 


29 


plants,  fodder  plants,  leguminons  and  hoe-plants,  also 
the  different  commercial  plants ;  secondly,  for  elemen- 
tary exemplification  of  the  progress  in  husbandry  ;  for 
instance,  making  beds  of  a  few  square  meters  in  circum- 
ference, and  for  the  diffusion  of  the  knowledge  of  physics 
and  chemistry  so  indispensable  to  the  husbandman. 
The  "  experiment "  garden  serves  the  younger  children 
for  personal  observation  and  ratification  of  what  is  com- 
municated to  them  by  instruction,  and  also  for  the  bene- 
fit of  outsiders  who  come  to  listen  to  the  progressive 
course  of  agricultural  instruction.  It  would  be  very 
short-sighted  to  found  an  insufficient,  ordinary  agricul- 
tural school  for  the  small  farmers  and  day  laborers,  and 
leave  the  mass  of  the  country  people  unprovided  for. 

If  the  public-school  teacher  does  not  possess  suf- 
ficient knowledge  to  furnish  the  progressive  course  of 
agricultural  instruction,  the  school  garden  can  take  in 
an  itinerant  agricultural  teacher  as  a  guest,  and  the  town 
shall  thus  save  the  money  which  a  special  garden  for 
this  purpose  would  cost.*  To  this  "  experiment  gar- 
den "  for  boys  also  belongs,  in  the  agricultural  depart- 
ment, of  the  school  garden,  a  kitchen  garden,  an  experi- 
ment garden  for  girls,  and  a  nursery  for  trees. 

If  there  is  sufficient  space  near  the  school,  let  the 
school  garden  be  joined  to  the  school.  This  is  very 
desirable.  If  the  space  is  too  small  for  that,  the  parish 
can  give  some  waste  spot  in  its  territory, — and  there  are 
enough  such  places  in  the  mountainous  regions, — which 
should  be  near  the  school  .if  possible.  Or  it  may  be- 
stow a  little  piece  of  land  for  this  purpose  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  village.  This  piece  of  ground  must  of 

*  It  is  the  custom  for  "wanderers,"  or  itinerant  students,  to  travel  about  for  a 
year  after  they  have  completed  studies  in  Germany,  in  order  to  gain  experience. 


3o  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

course  he  hedged  in  safely  in  order  to  be  guarded 
against  injury.  The  seeds  required  can  be  purchased 
by  several  united  parishes,  and  if  necessary  by  a  whole 
district  (Bezirke),  so  that  each  parish  will  have  to  con- 
tribute but  a  few  kreutzers.  In  many,  probably  in  most 
cases,  the  seeds  and  plants  will  be  given  by  public- 
spirited  men  and  societies,  or  by  other  school  gardens. 
Thus,  in  a  surprisingly  short  time  many  new,  useful  plants 
will  be  contributed  and  acclimated,  whose  domestica- 
tion would  otherwise  be  difficult  and  perhaps  impossible, 
unless  some  large  landed  proprietor  in  the  neighborhood 
makes  a  beginning.  New  kinds  of  cereals,  maize,  saf- 
fron, potatoes,  hops,  the  different  kinds  of  table  pump- 
kins so  little  estimated  at  their  true  value,  clover  (in 
Hungary),  and  a  series  of  technical  and  economical  and 
commercial  plants  can  thus  be  introduced  into  many 
places  with  little  trouble  and  little  cost.  Although  the 
more  important  commercial  plants,  (that. is,  medicinal 
plants,)  and  those  that  yield  oil,  colors,  spinning  material 
and  roots,  give  a  specially  good  revenue,  the  difficulty 
of  their  introduction  has  stood  in  the  way  of  their  gen- 
eral spread,  while  the  consequently  little  revenue  they 
have  brought  under  these  circumstances  has  led  to  the 
abandonment  of  the  endeavor  after  a  few  trials. 

THE    MICROSCOPE   AS   AN   AID. 

The  microscope,  which  naturally  comes  into  the  ser- 
vice of  the  public  school,  will  do  its  part  to  teach  the 
pupils  how  to  know  many  dangerous  diseases  that  assail 
cultivated  plants,  such  as  wheat,  potatoes,  etc.,  and  will 
make  known  many  scarcely  visible  insects  that  are  the 
enemies  of  agriculture  and  must  be  fought. 


SOME  ADVANTAGES.  31 

The  improvement  of  former  methods  of  husbandry 
will  go  hand  in  hand  in  the  rising  generation,  with  the 
introduction  of  new  cultivated  plants  and  their  proper 
handling  in  the  school  garden  ;  much  injurious  routine 
work  inherited  from  the  forefathers  will  fall  into  disuse ; 
many  wholesome  innovations  will  make  their  way,  and 
formerly  despised  or  carelessly  rejected  material  will  be 
duly  estimated.  In  many  countries  esteemed  for  their 
husbandry,  the  cow  manure  which  is  allowed  to  run  to 
waste  and  to  poison  the  air  in  so  many  of  our  villages, 
is  made  good  use  of.  All  kinds  of  manure  must  be  pre- 
served in  the  school  garden  in  as  small  a  space  as  pos- 
sible, to  be  used  by  young  and  old  for  single  plants. 
Its  value  is  held,  alas,  very  low  in  almost  all  parts  of 
Austrian  Hungary. 

IMPROVEMENT   OF  THE   SOIL. 

The  ground  soon  will  be  made  much  better  and  more 
profitable  if  this  matter  of  its  dressing  is  attended  to, 
than  it  now  is  in  most  places  ;  in  the  neighborhood  of 
cities  especially,  the  village  will  assume  more  and  more 
the  character  of  richly  remunerative  garden  culture. 
Where  garden  culture  already  prevails,  it  will  be  ex- 
tended and  improved,  and  in  some  places  where  at  pres- 
ent it  is  supposed  to  be  impossible,  it  will  cover  the 
present  nakedness,  as  for  instance  in  many  a  woodland 
or  mountain  village.  Where  early  frosts  make  impos- 
sible the  early  transplanting  of  garden  growths,  the 
children  of  the  school  garden  can  be  taught  not  to  lay 
out  their  beloved  hot-beds,  but  to  use  the  much  cheaper 
leaf-mould  beds  which  do  their  duty  much  more  surely, 
because,  being  set  later  in  the  year,  they  give  out 
young  plants  suitable  for  the  mountain  regions  at  the 


THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 


proper  time.*  Children  can  be  taught  in  winter  to  raise 
seeds  in  egg-shells  and  thumb  pots  to  be  planted  out 
in  spring  at  the  right  time. 

School  gardens  are  the  only  places  where  improve- 
ments in  the  culture  of  the  grape-vine  by  manuring, 
pruning  and  other  treatment  can  be  well  introduced. 

FRUIT   CULTURE. 

Very  special  care  should  be  bestowed  upon  fruit  cul- 
ture in  the  school  gardens.  This  is  as  yet  too  little  es- 
teemed as  a  source  of  agricultural  prosperity.  The 
school  garden  can  further  this  interest  by  cultivating 
valuable  fruits,  raising  them  from  seed  and  thus  accli- 
mating foreign  fruit,  and  making  every  region  a  fruit 
growing  one.  The  school  garden  should  provide  a  nurs- 
ery for  trees  cultivated  from  wild  stock,  and  quinces, 
which  improve  greatly  by  good  care  ;  it  should  also  con- 
tain trellis  fruit  of  all  kinds.  Where  fruit  culture  is  yet 
scarcely  known,  the  husbandman  should  learn  that  a 
tree  that  can  be  bought  for  10  neugroschen  will  soon 

*  Small  boxes  made  of  hard  burned  clay  for  covering  plants  are  made  without 
bottoms,  and  have  a  straight  sloping  roof,  and  an  arrangement  to  hold  the  glass 
safely  in  its  place.  Their  chief  use  is  to  protect  the  plants  from  the  winter's  cold. 
By  the  help  of  these,  cauliflower,  cabbage,  savoy,  salad  and  other  kitchen  plants, 
can  be  wintered,  if,  in  the  autumn,  the  boxes  are  placed  in  rows  two  feet  apart  in 
a  protected  place,  and  either  seeded  or  planted,  the  spaces  between  the  boxes 
filled  with  leaves  or  straw-manure,  and  protected  on  the  glass  side  with  covering, 
in  severe  frost.  In  the  spring  they  can  be  used  to  protect  tender  plants  that  are 
then  set  out,  against  night  frost,  rough  wind  and  beating  rain,  or  to  lay  over  veg- 
etables and  flowering  plants  in  the  open  field,  and  especially  in  gardens  where 
there  are  no  hot  beds.  Most  vegetables  do  better  in  them  than  in  hot-beds,  be- 
cause in  the  latter  plants  are  apt  to  be  too  much  forced.  They  are  particularly 
useful  for  cucumbers  and  melons  when  first  growing.  They  may  also  be  used  in 
summer  and  autumn  to  bring  forward  the  settings  of  woody  plants,  or  to  shade 
seeds  from  the  heat  of  the  sun,  from  drought,  from  snakes,  birds  or  cats,  which 
last  trample  down  the  beds.  In  winter  they  are  useiul  for  plants  that  it  is  hard 
to  make  grow,  and  that  yet  do  not  bear  much  moisture.  They  are  easily  handled. 
The  glass  can  be  partially  removed  to  let  in  air,  a  little  from  the  ground. 


FRUIT  CULTURE.  33 

represent  a  capital  of  from  55  to  130  thalers,  for  a  table- 
fruit  tree  easily  gains  yearly  from  4  to  5  florins,  and  a 
nut-tree  10  florins.  He  should  be  made  aware  that 
many  endeavors  to  raise  fruit  have  failed  hitherto 
only  because  the  right  kinds  were  not  chosen,  or  small 
trees  have  been  brought  from  good  soil  to  worse,  from 
warm  regions  to  colder  ones,  from  protected  situations 
to  exposed  ones,  etc.  In  short,  failure  has  come  be- 
cause essential  mistakes  were  made  in  the  beginning, 
or  rational  treatment  was  wanting,  or  other  great  er- 
rors were  committed.  When  the  great  advantage 
which  is  to  be  reaped  from  fruit  culture  is  once  seen, 
and  there  is  sound  instruction  given  about  the  selec- 
tion and  proper  care  of  trees  fitted  to  the  soil  and 
circumstances,  fruit  trees  will  be  planted  everywhere.1* 
When  this  is  the  case,  the  home  garden  will  be  taken 
better  care  of,  dwarf  fruit  trees  will  be  found  harm- 
less to  other  garden  plants,  and  birds,  the  extermina- 
tors of  injurious  insects,  will  come  to  our  gardens. f 
Soon  mountain  slopes  and  waste  places  will  be  culti- 
vated with  fruit  trees,  farm  fields  will  be  surrounded 
with  them,  and  streets,  lanes,  ridges,  dams,  the  shores 
of  broqjcs  and  the  edges  of  ponds  will  be  ornamented 
with  them.  Respect  for  the  property  of  others  will 
soon  arise  when  all  land  proprietors  cultivate  fruit  on 
their  own  premises. 

TREE   PLANTING. 

Nor  must  school  gardens  forget  to  plant  forest  trees. 
Wherever  the  woods  do  not  stand  very  near  the  school, 

*  It  is  well  to  remember  that  while  apple  trees  are  devoured  almost  bodily  by 
canker  worms  in  Cambridge,  the  soil  is  specially  adapted  to  pear  trees,  which  the 
canker  worms  do  not  attack . — TB. 

t  Cats  must  be  abolished  in  city  gardens  to  ensure  the  visitation  of  birds. 

3 


34  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

there  should  be  at  least  one  representative  of  our  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  kinds  of  trees  in  the  school  garden,  and 
also  a  collection  of  our  most  important  wild  shrubs,  if 
the  wood  does  not  actually  look  into  the  school  win- 
dows. If  it  is  not  possible  to  plant  trees  near  the 
school,  one  of  the  village  streets  can  be  planted  with  a 
row  or  an  alley  of  trees  ;  but  care  should  be  taken  that 
no  two  trees  of  the  same  kind  stand  together,  as  the  ef- 
fect will  not  be  picturesque.  Many  new  trees  will, be 
introduced  by  means  of  the  school  gardens — for  exam- 
ple, the  invaluable  larch,  the  quickly  growing  ailanthus 
(God's  tree),  acacias  and  Scotch  firs  on  the  Hungarian 
steppes,  etc.  If  the  landed  proprietors  will  learn  some- 
thing of  the  care  of  forest  trees,  they  will  no  longer  strip 
the  woods  of  their  fallen  leaves  for  litter  for  their  cattle, 
nor  tear  away  the  roots  from  every  fallen  tree,  for  they 
will  know  that  they  are  withdrawing  the  nourishment 
of  the  woodlands,  which  consists  of  the  remains  of  the 
rotten  and  mouldered  vegetation.  The  public  school 
must  implant  in  the  children  the  love  of  trees,  make 
clear  to  them  what  part  the  woods  fulfil  in  the  house- 
hold of  nature,  and  of  what  importance  they  are  to  man. 
It  must  awaken  in  them  the  conviction  that  bad  wood- 
husbandry  is  the  ruin  of  agriculture,  and  that  short-sight- 
edness for  one  or  two  harvests  often  turns  a  woodland 
into  an  unfruitful  waste. 

One  of  the  most  important  of  the  shrubs  which  are  to 
be  domesticated  by  the  school  garden  is  the  willow  ; 
particularly  the  fine  willow  that  is  used  for  basket  mak- 
ing, which  will  furnish  material  for  the  school  work-shop 
and  create  a  lucrative  branch  of  industry  for  adults. 
The  culture  of  the  willow  is  very  simple,  very  profitable, 
and  makes  it  possible  to  bring  empty  places,  which  oth- 


FRUIT  CULTURE.  35 

erwise  would  be  useless,  to  a  good  revenue,  since  a  two 
or  three  year  old  willow-stock  will  earn  from  270  to  310 
florins  an  acre  under  favorable  circumstances.  The 
valuable  kinds  of  willow  are  well  known  to  be  suitable 
for  industrial  and  agricultural  purposes.* 

*  The  chief  forester,  Geyer,  in  Karlshafen,  on  the  Weser,  uses  the  white  wil- 
low and  its  varieties,  the  silver  and  gold  willow,  for  margins  of  shores,  hedges  of 
meadows  and  shade  for  cattle  pastures.  The  hurdle  and  basket  manufactories 
use  the  purple  and  basket,  or  garden  willow,  with  their  varieties,  the  almond  and 
spurge-laurel  willows.  Mountain  scarps,  moist  and  low-lying  fields,  and  islands 
that  are  periodically  submerged,  are  used  for  these  growths.  One  morning  in 
Hanover,  Geyer  counted  30,720  saplings,  and  reckoned  an  annual  gross  income 
of  from  $60  to  $80  from  a  capital  of  about  $19.  Such  plantations  last  from  18  to 
20  years.  The  rubbish  from  the  peeling  (rind  and  leaves)  furnish  when  dried  a 
good  winter  fodder  for  sheep  and  goats.  The  salix  caspica  affords  very  good 
osier  twigs  for  binding,  and  grows  in  dry,  clayey,  sandy  ground  from  six  to  eight 
feet  high.  This  and  salix  viminalis  are  the  best  worth  cultivating.  In  the  for- 
est and  on  the  shores  of  rivers,  they  now  use  in  Prussia  in  great  masses  the  bder- 
willow,  particularly  for  binding  together  pine  slabs  two  feet  in  width,  which  are 
placed  one  and  one-half  feet  apart  for  pheasants'  closes,  for  which  they,  are  pre- 
ferred before  all  other  kinds.  Willows  of  three  years  old  are  also  used  by  coop- 
ers for  hoop-staves,  and  those  of  two  years  old  by  basket  makers.  The  soil  for 
willows  must  be  dug  certainly  one  and  one-half  feet  deep,  and  must  be  sandy 
ground,  even  gravelly,  with  clayey  subsoil.  In  pure  clay  or  loam  or  with  moist 
subsoil  they  do  not  make  those  strong  twigs.  Ground  free  from  weeds  is  neces- 
sary for  willows.  On  the  shore  here  (of  the  Danube)  were  gathered  in  the  tree 
nursery  well-rooted  plants  set  a  year  ago  ;  but,  in  the  forest,  on  the  contrary, 
two  year  old  wood  was  taken,  which  is  the  best  for  that  place,  since  it  is  so  easily 
rooted,  and  one  year  old  wood  does  not  give  such  strong  plants  and  handsome 
twigs. 


CHAPTER  II. 

A  SCHOOL   GARDEN   A   PART   OF   THE    SCIENCE    OF   HOME 
AND    NATURE. 

The  school  gardens  will  contain  at  least  a  few  mul- 
berry trees  wherever  the  raising  of  silk  worms  is  possi- 
ble or  called  for.  But  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  cul- 
tivation of  fruit  is  the  most  desirable,  and  that  this  had 
better  be  well  established  before  the  silk  culture  is  at- 
tempted. 

The  school  garden,  while  attending  to  what  is  neces- 
sary and  useful,  must  be  sure  not  'to  neglect  what  is 
beautiful  and  pleasant  for  the  children,  and  must  not 
fail  to  provide  beautiful  flowers  by  which  the  sense  of 
color  shall  be  awakened  in  them.  The  culture  of  flow- 
ers must  be  looked  upon  as  instructive,  educational  and 
moral  in  its  effect.  Where  the  school  garden  is  neces- 
sarily too  small  for  other  things,  only  flowers  must  be 
raised.  The  point  to  be  aimed  at  is  that  the  children 
shall  love  their  work. 

The  incentive  to  gardening  will  be  still  more  power- 
ful, if  ornamental  shrubs  are  included,  which  may  be 
planted  singly  or  united  in  a  pretty  shrubbery.  Where 
there  is  water  in  a  school  garden,  or  very  near  it,  irtter- 
(36) 


ITS  FLORA  AND  FAUNA. 


esting  water-plants  must  not  be  forgotten.  The  influ- 
ence of  the  school  garden  will  increase  just  in  propor- 
tion as  the  knowledge  of  our  home  plants,  and  those 
that  can  be  made  home  plants  by  being  acclimated,  is 
extended. 

And  not  merely  the  knowledge  of  the  home  flora,  as 
far  as  it  can  be  brought  within  the  sphere  of  the  school 
garden,  but  of  a  portion  of  our  fauna  —  that  is  of  the 
lower  forms  of  animal  life  —  should  be  kept  in  view.  The 
garden  and  its  surroundings  give  abundant  opportunity 
for  the  knowledge  and  observation  of  the  insect  world 
and  its  interesting  transformations.  If  it  is  possible  to 
have  a  little  basin  in  the  garden,  or  if  water  is  near  at 
hand,  there  is  open  to  the  teacher  a  rich  source  of  in- 
formation upon  the  remarkable  lower  insect  world  of 
the  water.  And  as  the  flowers  among  plants,  so  stand 
the  birds  among  animals,  nearest  to  the  heart  of  chil- 
dren. In  large  school  gardens  the  thorn  hedges  afford 
protection  to  the  singing  birds,  and  hedges  in  the  neigh- 
borhood must  serve  the  purpose  for  the  small  school 
gardens. 

PRACTICAL  OBJECT  LESSONS. 

Not  the  school  room  but  the  school  garden  will  spread 
correct  views  upon  the  subject  of  our  animals.  The 
future  husbandman  and  gardener,  and  the  future  forester, 
will  desire  to  know  the  friends  and  enemies  which  those 
denizens  of  meadow,  field  and  wood  as  represented  in 
the  school  garden,  possess  in  the  animal  world.  The 
hedgehog,  for  example,  will  be  allowed  to  dwell  undis- 
turbed in  the  garden  ;  the  toad,  at  present  purchased 
by  the  English  gardeners,  v/ill  be  allowed  in  the  school 


38  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

garden,  if  it  can  be  kept  from  the  beehives  ;  for  it  is 
otherwise  harmless  as  well  as  useful.  The  bats  will  be 
spared ;  even  the  buzzards  and  the  owls  will  be  secure 
as  soon  as  the  village  youth  know  that  we  have  only 
two  birds  of  prey,  the  hawk  and  the  magpie.  The  birds 
will  then  find  protection ;  gentle  hands  will  strew  food 
for  our  singing  birds  during  the  winter,  and  the  laws 
which  aim  to  protect  these  friends  of  man  will  be  re- 
spected. The  destroyer  of  nests  and  the  bird  catcher 
will  cease  from  among  men.  The  singing  of  binds  will 
enliven  the  earth  and  awaken  agreeable  and  friendly 
feeling  where  it  is  now  wanting.  The  titmouse,  if  un- 
molested, will  increase  incredibly,  and  many  useful 
birds — starlings  and  jackdaws  for  instance — will  be  in- 
vited to  domesticate  themselves  by  little  breeding-houses 
where  they  have  been  seen  hitherto  only  as  fleeting 
guests.  Breeding  houses  for  birds  belong  to  school 
gardens  as  truly  as  salt  does  to  bread,  or  a  cup  to  the 
social  meal.*  The  few  examples  mentioned  which  do 
not  claim  to  be  exhaustive  in  number,  may  suffice  to 
show  that  the  school  garden  can  draw  within  the  sphere 
of  its  direct  and  indirect  activity  a  considerable  part  of 
the  animal  world  of  the  home  region. 

*  It  has  been  calculated  that  the  blue  titmouse  daily  consumes  at  least  three-quar- 
ters of  an  ounce  of  butterfly's  eggs,  and  that  this  amounts  to  between  15,000  and 
20,000  caterpillars.  This  little  bird,  then,  destroys  in  one  year  six  and  a  half  mil- 
lions of  such  injurious  insects !  Every  pair  of  titmice  brings  up  yearly  from 
twenty-tour  to  thirty-two  young,  and  if  the  nourishment  of  these  last  amounts  to 
only  half  that  of  the  old  birds,  it  gives  the  consumption  of  the  monstrous  sum  of 
twenty-four  millions  of  injurious  insects  by  a  single  family  of  torn-tits.  A  cuckoo 
destroys  more  than  a  hundred  caterpillars  in  an  hour  ;  a  red-start  about  six  hun- 
dred flies  ;  and  innumerable  such  examples  can  be  found.  By  the  killing  of  one 
cuckoo,  one  titmouse,  or  one  finch  in  the  district  inhabited  by  such  a  bird,  as 
many  pecks  or  other  measure  of  injurious  insects  as  correspond  to  its  wants,  will 
be  let  loose  upon  the  vegetation. 


OPPORTUNITIES. 


A   TASTE   OF   ANIMATED   NATURE. 

But  the  school  garden  will  often  give  an  opportunity 
to  introduce  new  animals  whose  breeding  will  be  an 
advantage.  In  many  places  the  raising  of  silk  worms 
and  of  the  oak-spinner  (a  spider)  can  be  introduced. 
(Pastor  Liha  at  Lukow,  in  Moravia,  earned  in  1869  not 
less  than  800  florins  by  raising  oak-spinners.) 

In  many  countries,  and  in  many  parts  of  all  countries, 
a  rich  revenue  may  easily  be  gained  by  the  raising  of 
bees.  The  bee  industry  has  deteriorated  in  many 
countries  where  it  formerly  flourished — in  the  Zips  of 
Hungary,  for  instance — and  yet  the  demand  for  wax  is 
such  that  much  has  to  be  imported  into  Austria.  Sugar, 
which  has  supplanted  honey  for  the  table  as  a  sweetener 
in  all  countries  but  Hungary,  does  not  make  so  pleas- 
ant or  so  healthy  an  article  of  nourishment.  The  pre- 
judice of  many  countries  in  regard  to  the  supposed 
impossibility  of  introducing  bee  culture,  throws  it  spe- 
cially into  school  gardens.  Bee  pasturage  is  by  no 
means  impossible  by  its  limited  culture  on  the  plains, 
and  it  is  even  practicable  in  mountain  regions,  or  in- 
deed not  so  difficult.  Lindens,  acacias,  fruit  trees,  chest- 
nuts, will  in  future  be  cultivated  in  every  village.  For 
the  fruitful  plains  grow  maize,  and  the  bee-nourishing 
clovers.  For  these,  particularly  the  white  clover,  are 
abundant,  and  bring  much  revenue.  Hazel  bushes,  nut 
trees,  whortleberries,  Norway  maple,  willows  that  stand 
half  way  in  the  water,  sunflowers,  which  find  so  many 
uses  and  are  such  excellent  disinfectants  of  unhealthy 
regions,  offer  fine  bee  pasturage,  and  one  of  the  most 
striking  but  not  well  known  fodder  plants  for  bees  (I 
mean  mignonette),  blooms  the  whole  year  round.  Let 


40  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

a  beehive  and  a  bee  keeper  (Bienenvater)  be  given  to 
the  best  scholar,  as  they  do  in  German  Bohemia,  and 
the  certain  propaganda  is  sure  and  rapid. 

A   GLIMPSE   INTO   MINERALOGY. 

The  school  garden,  which  is  apparently  only  for  the 
cultivation  of  plants,  but  which  really  offers  muchma- 
terial  for  instruction  in  the  animal  kingdom,  and  illus* 
trates  the  interchanging  relations  between  the  vegetable 
and  animal  kingdoms,  stands  also  in  close  relation  to 
many  parts  of  the  mineral  kingdom,  which  can  have  but 
limited  attention  in  the  public  school.  Since  the  in- 
struction in  all  branches  must  be  brought  into  the  most 
intimate  relation  with  each  other,  it  can  also  take  into 
view  the  allied  branches  of  natural  science.  Here  par- 
ticularly comes  in  the  agricultural  science  of  the  soil 
which  treats  of  its  composition,  varieties,  trial  and  im- 
provement. The  ground  principles  of  physics  and 
chemistry  belong  to  this  instruction  in  natural  history, 
and  are  quite  comprehensible  by  the  younger  village 
children,  but  will  be  best  understood  when  they  find 
concrete  application.  The  different  branches  of  natural 
science  taught  in  the  practical  garden  of  the  boys  may 
be  indicated  by  various  topics.  The  origin  of  the  humus 
in  the  ground  by  the  decomposition  of  plants  and  of 
animal  secretions  and  remains,  whence  are  developed 
carbonic  acid  and  ammonia ;  the  absorbing  of  the  car- 
bonic acid  from  the  moist  soil  by  the  roots  of  plants, 
and  from  the  atmosphere  by  the  pores  (or  lungs)  of 
the  leaves  ;  the  decomposition  of  the  carbonic  acid  by 
the  green  parts  of  the  plant,  under  the  influence  of  light, 
into  pure  carbon  and  oxygen ;  the  separation  of  these 


MINERALOGY.  4I 


elements  ;  the  mutual  influence  of  the  vegetable  and  ani- 
mal kingdoms  ;  the  ammoniacal  contents  of  the  soil,  the 
air  and  the  rain  water ;  the  absorption  of  nitrogen  or 
azote  from  the  atmosphere  ;  the  absorption  of  mineral 
matter  dissolved  in  the  ground  and  in  water ;  the  origin 
of  these  by  mechanical  and  chemical  solution  ;  the  grad- 
ual impoverishment  of  the  soil ;  the  enriching  of  the 
soil  by  letting  it  lie  fallow,  as  by  manuring  it;  the 
nature  and  purpose  of  manure  •  the  illustration  of  the 
origin  and  processes  of  the  nourishing  and  growth  of 
plants  ;  the  principles  of  plant  culture  ;  seed  and  plant 
nurseries,  etc.  To  the  observations  of  the  school  gar- 
den belong  elementary  experiments  in  cultivating  plants 
in  water  and  in  sand,  together  with  experiments  in  the 
analysis  of  the  nourishment,  germination  and  multipli- 
cation of  plants.  Probably  no  one  will  deny  that  all 
this  belongs  to  the  instruction  of  a  well  arranged  village 
school. 

Where,  for  example,  can  the  function  of  the  air  in  the 
economy  of  nature  be  better  shown  than  in  the  open  air, 
in  nature,  in  the  school  garden  ?  Where  could  the  im- 
portance of  water,  the  ever  present  proteus-formed,  all 
encompassing,  all  moving,  all  containing,  and  all  shap- 
ing water,  the  element  by  whose  existence  the  earth  is 
what  it  is,  by  whose  means  plants  and  animals  live, 
without  which  we  could  not  exist  or  improve  in  cultiva- 
tion,—where  can  the  importance  of  light  and  warmth  be 
better  explained  than  in  the  school  garden  ? 

Outside  of  pedagogic  reasons,  the  chief  portion  of 
the  study  of  natural  history  falls  to  the  share  of  the  in- 
struction of  the  public  school.  Within  this  field  the  first 
place  belongs  to  the  most  agreeable  part,  the  plant 
world,  and  not  merely  because  it  is  the  most  easy  of 


THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 


comprehension,  but  for  many  other  reasons,  amongst 
which  the  most  weighty  may  be  that  it  affords  exact, 
living  and  repeated  material  for  observation,  and 
because  the  school  child  can  live  this  knowledge  in  the 
most  delightful  manner  in  the  school  garden.  Among 
all  the  objects  of  nature,  the  analogy  with  the  spiritual 
life  of  man  can  be  most  beautifully  shown  in  plants. 
But  this  instruction,  given  in  the  spirit  of  Luben,  is 
scarcely  to  be  thought  of  in  a  public  school  without  the 
accompaniment  of  the  garden.  It  is  not  natural  history 
alone  that  is  exemplified  by  this  mode  of  instruction ; 
geography  and  geology,  numbers,  language,  may  all  be 
collaterally  taught,  a  rich  nourishment  for  mind  and 
heart. 

The  school  garden  will  then,  as  has  been  shown,  fol- 
low up  the  instruction  in  natural  science  in  a  prominent 
manner.  First  for  purposes  of  the  special  instruction 
in  purely  empirical  relations  with  definite  practical  ends, 
and  aiming  also  at  universal  logical  considerations, 
while  it  holds  up  to  correct  thinking  ;  but  it  will  also 
serve  the  purposes  of  education,  while  it  gives  to  the 
child's  feelings  a  truly  ethical  (or  moral)  and  a  healthy 
aesthetic  direction,  and  cultivates  a  sense  of  beauty 
which,  when  a  grown  man,  he  will  be  conscious  of 
through  his  whole  life,  and  manifest  in  his  thinking  and 
acting. 

A   CITY   NECESSITY. 

The  conviction  will  be  impressed  upon  the  attentive 
reader  that  the  village  school  can  scarcely  take  adequate 
care  of  the  education  of  the  people  in  the  spirit  of  the 
nineteenth  century  without  the  addition  of  the  school 
garden.  But  the  city  school,  where  it  is  possible,  must 
also  have  its  school  garden,  if  it  is  only  a  few  square 


THE  CITY. 


43 


meters  in  circumference  •  and,  if  in  the  worst  case,  it 
can  only  offer  to  the  children  in  the  most  modest  man- 
ner the  opportunity  of  observing  the  organism  of  the 
development  and  natural  history  of  plants  by  means  of 
quite  a  few  well-chosen  examples. 

Even  in  the  city,  the  school  garden  need  not  be  in 
any  sense  a  peculiar  botanical  garden  or  teach  any 
novelties.  Its  aims  should  be  not  instruction  in  botany, 
but  in  the  characteristic  plants  of  the  home ;  to  intro- 
duce the  children  not  to  the  science  of  nature,  but  to 
nature  itself.  And  its  object  should  be  not  merely  to 
bring  the  plant  world  near  to  the  children,  or  to  impart 
directly  the  knowledge  of  natural  history,  but  to  take 
advantage  of  those  cultivating  and  educating  moments 
for  the  welfare  and  healing  of  the  rising  generation 
which  lie  in  the  province  of  a  knowledge  of  natural  his- 
tory, and  which,  alas,  are  not  recognized  or  improved 
by  all  teachers,  by  which  insensibility  this  instruction  is 
often  aimless.  The* goal  of  the  city  school  garden  with 
reference  to  education  is  the  same  in  its  nature  as  that 
of  the  country ;  and,  even  if  individual  aims  of  instruc- 
tion fail,  in  their  places  others  step  forward,  not  less 
important  in  their  kind  for  the  city  child. 

THE   CITY   AND   COUNTRY   SCHOOL   CONTRASTED. 

City  and  country  school  gardens  cannot  possibly  be 
arranged  on  one  inflexible  plan,  any  more  than  the 
readers  or  curriculums  of  the  school  can  be  alike.  The 
country  school  garden  may  be  expected  especially  to 
awaken  in  the  children  their  first  taste  for  horticulture 
and  for  the  beautiful  in  nature,  and  give  an  oppor- 
tunity to  individuals  to  gain  a  knowledge  of  fruit- 


44 


THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 


culture,  vegetable  and  flower  raising,  according  as 
sex,  skill  and  inclination  attract  to  the  one  or  the 
other.  It  is  not  desirable,  therefore,  that  all  should 
learn  every  thing,  which  perhaps  would  not  be  prac- 
ticable, and  might  interfere  with  the  special  lessons 
of  the  school.  And  the  agricultural  "  experiment  gar- 
den," within  the  school  garden,  will  be  of  advantage  in 
its  whole  significance  only  to  those  boys  who  will  enjoy 
the  progressive  course  of  agricultural  instruction  after, 
they  have  done  with  the  public  school.  This  kind  of 
instruction  is  already  partly  obligatory,  and  it  will  soon 
be  so  where  it  is  not  so  now. 

The  city  school  garden  contains  different  material  of 
culture  from  the  country  school  garden.  Here  espe- 
cially, roomy,  airy,  shaded  play  and  gymnastic  grounds 
will  compensate  the  city  children  for  the  want  of  home 
gardens,  and  preserve  the  young  from  dangerous 
sedentary  pleasures,  as  well  as  from  the  perilous  amuse- 
ments of  the  streets.  Then  it  will  teach  them  to  know 
the  principal  trees,  shrubs,  field,  commercial  and  other- 
wise characteristic  plants  of  the  home  region  in  the 
spirit  of  Liiben,  without  systematic  science.  This  is  the 
least  that  can  be  required  of  either  country  or  city 
school  gardens  ;  but  if  each  of  them  offers  this  minimum, 
the  task  of  the  school  garden  is  essentially  fulfilled,  and 
so  much  is  attainable  to-day  in  the  city  school  garden. 
A  somewhat  later  time  will  perhaps  make  the  school 
garden  the  school  of  work  everywhere,  as  soon  as  the 
teachers  are  capable  of  doing  it. 

As  to  the  rest,  it  is  not  to  be  overlooked  that  practi- 
cally the  selection  of  the  elements  necessary  to  the 
school  garden  is,  first,  a  place  for  it,  and  secondly,  the 
means  of  the  given  community. 


EXHIBITING  NA  TURE.  45 


NATURE    BETTER   THAN   PICTURES. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  a  park  in  the  near 
neighborhood  of  a  city,  or  a  public  garden,  can  render 
a  school  garden  unnecessary  or  take  the  place  of  it. 
Such  places  may  suffice  for  the  teachers  ;  but  only  per- 
sonally for  purposes  of  their  own  culture,  not  for  that  of 
their  pupils.  Whoever  will  learn  to  swim  must  go  into 
the  water,  and  whoever  wishes  to  know  nature  must  go 
into  nature.  If  the  school  wish  to  teach  of  natural  bod- 
ies it  must  exhibit  them,  produce  them  on  the  spot,  and 
produce  them  often,  and  if  they  are  changeable  bodies, 
like  plants,,  they  must  be  observed  in  their  various  de- 
velopments. Nature  is  better  than  all  the  picture 
books  !  It  is  pitiful  to  think  that  many  cultivated  peo- 
ple in  cities  do  not  know  even  our  most  common  forest 
trees,  whose  number  does  not  reach  thirty;  that  many 
city  people  do  not  even  know  how  to  distinguish  the  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  grain  in  the  fields ;  do  not  even  know 
that  the  leaf  and  flower  buds  upon  trees  and  bushes 
are  already  formed  in  the  autumn,  and  wrapped  in 
the  safe  integuments  with  which  nature  invests  them 
for  preservation  against  the  winter  cold. 

Excursions  for  the  purpose  of  learning  natural  history 
are  very  desirable  for  the  city  schools,  but  these  are 
very  impracticable  in  large  cities,  and  would  not  be  suf- 
ficient alone  to  teach  any  thing  more  than  the  most 
superficial  acquaintance  with  it. 

A  school  garden  in  the  city  fills  the  hearts  of  the 
children,  even  of  those  who  can  only  see  it  out  of 
the  windows,  with  transport,  and  makes  them  fre- 
quent it  so  much  the  more  willingly.  One  need  but  see 
what  joy  they  have  in  only  a  few  trees  in  front  of  the 


46  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

school-house  or  standing  in  the  yard,  or  when  the  walls 
of  the  yard  or  the  gymnastic  ground  are  ornamented 
with  perennial  green,  or  with  shrubs  in  the  corners, 
or  when  large  flower  pots  rilled  with  blooming  plants 
stand  around  on  pyramidal  flower  stands.  So  in  Vienna 
the  city  pedagogium  is  ornamented  with  a  little  terrace 
on  the  roof,  containing  a  little  iron  house  with  a  stove  in 
it  for  the  winter.  A  still  smaller  space  in  some  broad 
passage-way  or  in  another  light  room  in  the  school- 
house  may  be  appropriated  to  this  priceless  purpose. 
How  much  better,  when  a  real,  rational,  suitable  school- 
garden  is  arranged  for  the  city  child  !  Every  tree  in  the 
city  is  a  quiet  watch  over  its  health,  a  source  of  oxygen, 
an  ornament,  a  refreshment.  The  time  will  at  last 
come,  when,  as  in  Italy,  every  city  will  have  its  Com- 
mittee of  Improvement,  whose  task  it  shall  be,  after 
the  example  of  many  cities  of  North  America,  England 
and  France,  to  beautify  the  squares  and  streets  with 
rows  and  groups  of  trees  wherever  it  does  not  interrupt 
traffic.  Whoever  has  once  learnt  in  the  school  garden 
to  love  trees,  will  ever  after  feel  it  to  be  an  imperative 
want  to  plant  and  to  beautify. 

WHAT   ONE   CITY   CAN   DO. 

Already  an  area  of  seventy  square  metres  is  offered  for 
a  city  school  garden  in  Vienna.  Since  there  will  be  no 
room  for  woody  growths  here,  they  have  been  raised  in 
flower  pots  (according  to  Prof.  Eichert's  plan),  by  a 
private  citizen  or  a  society  (the  Horticultural  Society), 
in  time  to  be  loaned  to  the  school.  Our  park  and  forest 
trees  found  room  on  a  table  at  the  Exposition,  and  the 
children  had  an  opportunity  to  learn  to  know  quite  dis- 


CITY  GARDENS.  47 


tinctly  the  bark,  flower,  leaf  and  tiny  buds.  In  even 
so  small  a  garden  the  flowers  blooming  in  each  month 
could  be  collected  in  groups.  Of  course  the  spring 
flowers  of  the  home  region  and  the  characteristic  plants 
of  the  plain  must  find  careful  nurture,  even  in  the  very 
smallest  school  garden.  A  happy  collection  of  the  most 
characteristic  home  plants  can  form  a  little  jewel  box 
of  a  garden!  So  in  an  alpine  region,  the  most  charm- 
ing alpine  plants  placed  together  in  an  artistic  rock- 
work  in  natural  groups,  make  a  true  feast  for  the  eye  of 
old  and  young.  A  tasteful  collection  of  living  mosses 
for  autumn  is  a  never  to  be  forgotten  delight  to  behold. 
When  the  garden  attains  the  size  of  200  square  metres, 
the  woody  growths  may  be  collected  together  in  family 
pictures.  If  there  is  more  room  still,  the  plan  accom- 
panying this  pamphlet  can  be  used  essentially  for  the 
laying  out  of  a  city  school  garden.  This  plan  has  al- 
ready been  used  for  a  most  interesting  garden  that  has 
been  arranged  by  Mr.  C.  Kunze,  in  Chemnitz,  Saxony. 
It  is  11,000  metres  in  size;  the  ground  stock  cost 
19,000  thalers  ;  the  whole  garden  36,000.  This  crea- 
tion is  for  the  gymnasium  and  object  school,  but  it 
serves  at  the  same  time  as  a  botanical  garden  for  the 
public.  The  gentleman  who  planned  this  garden  is 
such  a  lover  of  his  kind,  that  he  contemplates  making 
still  another. 

A   GARDEN   IN  SAXONY. 

In  this  garden  are  to  be  seen  statues,  a  large  rockery 
for  the  alpine  plants,  a  pond  which  furnishes  the  pupils 
with  marsh  and  water  plants,  a  building  which  serves  as 
a  lecture  hall,  from  whose  platform  the  whole  garden 


48  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

can  be  seen,  a  sensible  as  well  as  ornamental  dwelling- 
house  for  the  gardener,  a  sumptuous  iron  veranda  for 
climbing  plants,  etc.,  etc.  I  do  not  of  course  desire  so 
costly  and  magnificent  a  garden  for  a  city  school.  It 
is  not  to  be  expected  that  it  will  be  imitated  in  all 
Europe.  It  would  have  too  much  material  for  a  public 
school,  and  would  be  superfluous  as  a  public  school 
garden. 

The  question  involuntarily  arises :  Is  the  school  gar- 
den practicable  in  any  very  large  city  like  Vienna  or 
Berlin  ? 

School  gardens  are  specially  desirable  precisely  here 
where  the  children  find  it  most  difficult,  or  indeed  not 
possible,  to  wander  about  in  the  open  air  with  compan- 
ions of  their  own  age. 

OTHER   SCHOOL   GARDENS. 

As  long  ago  as  before  the  World  Exposition  in  Vien- 
na, an  interesting  experiment  was  made  to  create  some- 
thing equivalent  to  a  school  garden.  The  Director 
Godai  of  the  industrial  school  in  the  city  pedagogium, 
arranged  the  most  important  home  plants  in  flower-pots 
and  boxes. 

But  since  the  exposition,  already  two  proper  school 
gardens  have  been  established  in  Vienna,  one  of  which 
was  made  by  altering  another  garden  ;  the  other  was 
created  anew. 

That  hitherto  neglected  square  was  altered  which  is 
situated  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Deaf-Mute  Institu- 
tion. In  the  garden  which  now  occupies  this  waste 
place  is  now  a  large  gymnastic  ground,  a  well  arranged 
garden  containing  the  most  important  garden  and  field 


SPECIAL  INSTANCES.  49 

plants,  a  tree  and  vine  nursery,  a  collection  of  the  most 
important  home  shrubs,  poisonous  plants,  etc.  The 
class  of  children  for  whom  this  garden  is  destined 
need  a  peculiar  care  of  the  sentiments,  and  it  is  gener- 
ally acknowledged  the  care  of  plants  helps  their  devel- 
opment very  much. 

A  very  useful  garden  is  that  of  Principal  Katschinka, 
in  the  5th  district  of  Margarethen — laid  out  at  his  own 
expense.  The  present  garden  was  in  1874  on  a  grass 
plat.  Upon  the  sod  had  stood  from  an  early  time  one 
great  tree  and  one  sumptuous  elderberry  bush.  All 
the  rest  was  created  by  Mr.  Katschinka.  The  area  of 
the  garden  is  a  modest  one — only  about  560  square 
metres — and  it  contains  about  300  kinds  of  plants,  which 
is  a  proof  that  the  ground  is  well  used.  The  most  im- 
portant domestic  plants,  flowers  and  forest  growths  are 
well  represented,  so  that  the  children  receive  instruction 
from  rich  material  for  observation. 

The  establishment  of  school  gardens  in  Vienna  is 
possible  in  many  places,  for  several  squares  can  be  ob- 
tained for  modest  little  gardens.  There  are  few  schools 
in  Vienna  that  cannot  have  gardens  of  at  least  from 
five  to  six  square  metres  in  extent.  Wonderful  as  it 
may  sound,  it  must  be  said  that  in  this  very  small  space 
there  can  be  a  very  pretty  little  garden. 

I  have  been  met  with  the  objection  that,  even  where 
space  for  a  garden  could  be  found  in  Vienna,  it  would 
be  impracticable  to  have  one  on  account  of  the  multi- 
tude of  earwigs  and  wood  lice.  This  difficulty  is  not 
of  importance.  Hard  coal  ashes  used  as  manure  will 
abolish  these  pests. 

The  Common  Council  of  Vienna  has  referred  the 
question  of  the  establishment  of  school  gardens  in  the 

4 


50  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

public  and  burger  schools  of  the  city  to  a  special  com- 
mittee, by  which  all  necessary  measures  will  be  taken, 
.and  all  preliminary  questions  settled  before  the  28th  of 
August,  1875,  m  order  to  lay  out  the  first  school  gardens 
for  the  various  kinds  of  school-houses.  This  is  a  fine, 
happy  beginning. 

WHAT   TO   DO    IN   SMALL   TOWNS. 

In  the  smaller  cities,  where  there  is  no  space  in  the 
direct  neighborhood  of  the  school-houses,  places  must 
be  obtained  by  cession  or  purchase. 

The  way  will  be  well  opened  for  future  school  gardens 
when  in  all  the  recitation-rooms  pots  of  leaf  plants  and 
flowers  will  be  found,  which  do  well  in  moist  rooms  in- 
habited by  many  people,  and  when  all  the  windows  of 
the  school-houses,  so  far  as  they  do  not  too  much  im- 
pede the  sunshine,  are  adorned  with  flowering  plants. 
Cords,  or,  still  better,  fine  wires  must  be  used  to  fasten 
up  the  flower  pots  safely.  Children  will  be  glad  to 
bring  plants  from  home,  to  exchange  them  again  for 
others  when  they  are  out  of  bloom,  and  carry  home  in 
the  autumn  what  must  be  kept  there  through  the 
winter. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  take  the  idea,  if  one  is  once  con- 
vinced of  the  necessity  of  school  gardens,  that  a  school 
garden  for  girls  must  be  arranged  differently  in  some 
respects  from  one  made  for  boys.  Forest  trees  can 
be  grown  in  both  if  there  is  room  for  them  ;  but  flowers 
and  vegetables  should  play  a  chief  part  in  the  girls' 
gardens,  and  the  culture  of  chamber  plants  should  not 
be  neglected.  Both  boys  and  girls  should  learn  what 
belongs  in  a  pleasant  home  garden  ;  the  boys  should 


A  QUESTION. 


learn  to  know  the  wild  shrubs  and  all  the  important 
technical  and  commercial  plants,  and  how  to  plant  and 
improve  trees  and  take  care  of  trellis  fruit. 

Let  every  one  answer  for  himself  the  question  :  Will 
not  the  habitual  frequenting  of  the  city  children  in  the 
school  gardens,  and  where  it  is  practicable,  their  occu- 
pation in  them,  in  light  garden  work,  tend  to  create  a 
physically  powerful  race  of  men  ? 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   SCHOOL  GARDEN   BELONGS   TO  EVERY   EDUCATIONAL 
INSTITUTION,  AND  TO    BE  ADAPTED  TO  SPECIAL  WANTS. 

Many  friends  of  schools  will  perhaps  consider  it  very 
difficult,  indeed  quite  impossible,  to  carry  into  effect  the 
ideas  thus  far  developed  for  the  realization  of  a  beauti- 
ful and  theoretically  incontestable  ideal,  and  will  look 
upon  it  as  a  mere  pious  wish.  And  this  for  two  rea- 
sons. First,  because  they  think  the  teachers  are  not  to 
be  found  who  possess  the  exalted  gifts  of  the  teaching 
required  for  it,  and  also  because  the  communities  would 
not  be  likely  to  have  the  means,  or  the  insight,  or  at 
least  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  to  carry  out  and  support 
such  school  gardens. 

Neither  of  these  things  is  to  be  feared.  In  regard 
to  the  teachers,  it  is  not  asked  of  them  that  they  shall 
be  learned  men,  or  at  least  so  exceedingly  learned  as  to 
be  able  to  know  and  determine  every  plant,  every  ani- 
mal, or  every  mineral  at  sight.  There  are  no  such 
teachers,  and  they  are  not  necessary.  Indeed  they 
would  not  be  desirable,  since  they  would  have  no  pleas- 
ure in  teaching  any  thing  but  natural  history.  But  the 
requisition  that  every  teacher  should  know  something 
(52) 


THE  NEW  IDEA  DA  WNING. 


of  nature,  that  every  country  school  teacher  should  be 
something  of  a  naturalist,  is  not  a  new  one  ;  it  has  long 
been  expressed  by  naturalists  and  pedagogues  ;  it  was 
the  well  known  judgment  of  Diesterweg.  But  as  the 
State  has  in  its  hands  the  teachers'  seminaries,  it  is  its 
business  to  see  that  the  teachers  shall  be  accomplished 
in  this  direction.  It  emphatically  belongs  to  every 
teachers'  seminary  to  have  a  carefully  planned,  richly 
endowed  school  garden.  Austria  has  already  set  the 
example  showing  that  such  a  garden  can  be  established 
at  the  cost  of  a  few  thousand  florins. 

The  idea  of  the  school  garden  has  now  dawned  upon 
the  modern  state,  as  is  visible  in  its  legislation.  The  Aus- 
trian public  school  law  of  May  i4th,  1869,  by  which  her 
legislation  has  set  up  a  monument  for  itself  of  immortal 
thought,  but  one  not  yet  sufficiently  estimated,  says  in 
Section  63  only  this  :  "  In  every  school  a  gymnastic 
ground,  a  garden  for  the  teacher  according  to  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  community,  and  a  place  for  the  pur- 
poses of  agricultural  experiment  are  to  be  created." 
Still  more  significantly  and  specially  were  given  in  the 
law  the  instructions  for  school  inspectors  of  each  circle  : 
"  To  see  to  it  that  in  the  country  schools,  school  gardens 
shall  be  provided,  for  corresponding  agricultural  in- 
struction in  all  that  relates  to  the  soil,  and  that  the 
teacher  shall  make  himself  skilful  in  such  instruction." 
Besides  this,  the  school  law  requires  of  the  teacher  the 
ability  to  give  instruction  in  agriculture,  and  the  Aus- 
trian ordinance  upon  schools  declares  expressly  in  Sec- 
tion 56  :  "  Instruction  in  natural  history  is  indispensa- 
ble to  suitably  established  school  gardens.  The  teachers 
then  must  be  in  a  condition  to  conduct  them." 


54 


THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 


GOOD   TEACHERS    NECESSARY. 

It  must  not  be  denied  that  a  great  portion  of  the 
teachers  of  the  present  day  are  not  fitted  to  conduct 
school  gardens  ably.  As  little  can  it  be  denied,  that  in 
individual  cases,  communities  or  private  individuals 
have  bestowed  grounds  for  school  gardens  which  have 
been  afterwards  turned  into  cabbage  and  potato  fields 
for  their  own  use.  Even  the  laying  out  of  the  school 
garden  cannot  be  left  to  the  teacher,  for  it  belongs  to 
an  expert  to  do  that,  who  may  have  to  act  decidedly 
against  a  selfish  teacher.  On  the  other  hand,  the  pri- 
vate garden  of  the  teacher,  which  perhaps  constitutes 
part  of  his  lawful  income,  must  not  be  taken  from  him 
to  make  a  school  garden.  At  least,  in  such  a  case  full 
compensation  must  be  made  to  him.  In  short,  there 
are  teachers,  where  it  would  least  be  expected,  who 
would  have  the  selfishness  to  appropriate  to  themselves 
the  proceeds  of  the  more  modern  methods  of  instruction 
in  natural  science,  and  who  yet  are  too  lazy  and  too 
great  lovers  of  their  ease  to  look  even  once  into  a  neigh- 
boring school  garden.  But  there  are  enthusiastic  and 
thoughtful  teachers  who  stand  in  contrast  to  these  mer- 
cenaries, and  who  honor  the  name  of  teacher  of  the 
public. 

It  would  be  very  unjust  to  accuse  the  communities, 
particularly  the  German  ones,  of  a  want  of  understand- 
ing of  the  importance  of  a  school  garden  ;  yet  we  find 
ourselves  obliged  to  influence  the  people  by  suitable 
essays  and  good  circulars,  and  by  the  spreading  of 
model  plans.  An  interesting  example  of  the  interest 
of  many  country  communities  is  shown  by  the  market- 
town  of  Hainfeld  in  Lower  Austria,  which  worked  out 


THE  EXPENSE. 


55 


the  programme  for  the  school  garden  laid  out  there  in 
a  manner  worthy  of  imitation.  Even  Slavic  peasants 
can  be  warmed  up  if  the  right  man  undertakes  to  do  it. 
The  circle  of  Mielec  in  West  Galicia,  fourteen  square 
miles  in  extent  (a  German  mile  is  three  English  miles, 
so  this  would  be  forty-two  of  our  square  miles),  is  think- 
ing of  laying  out  school  gardens  for  each  of  its  thirty- 
five  schools  ;  and  the  village  of  Zlotniki  and  Chrzastow, 
besides  the  little ^city  of  Mielec,  have  already  estab- 
lished very  extensive  ones  of  a  landscape  character. 

THE   QUESTION  OF    EXPENSE. 

The  expense  of  these  schemes  is  by  no  means  so 
large  as  one  at  a  distance  imagines,  as  soon  as  a  suita- 
ble, not  too  small  territory,  is  to  be  had.  The  work 
upon  the  land  is  often  done  by  the  citizens  who  offer 
their  services  for  handling  and  digging  without  price  ; 
and  the  more  readily,  because  the  first  work  is  best 
done  late  in  the  autumn  when  the  farmers  have  free 
time  to  give  to  it.  Larger  outlays  grow  in  time  by  the 
purchase  of  fruit  trees,  which,  it  is  well  known,  soon 
give  compound  interest.  Almost  all  the  trees,  shrubs, 
flowers  and  seeds  are  acquired  without  expense  from 
the  gifts  and  exchanges  of  school  gardens  themselves. 
Large  landed  proprietors,  gardeners,  foresters,  lovers 
of  nature,  and  public  spirited  societies  are  ready  and 
pleased  to  forward  such  a  public  work  by  their  gifts. 
The  royal  imperial  district  chief,  Eugen  Beueszek,  in 
Mielec,  understands  all  about  stirring  up  enthusiasm 
for  schools.  The  communities  there  are  erecting  nu- 
merous new  school  houses,  precisely  according  to  the 
Austrian  model  school  in  the  Exposition ;  large  landed 


56  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

proprietors  are  giving  large  domains  for  school  gar- 
dens, and  the  wood  for  fencing  them  in,  in  very  taste- 
ful patterns,  besides  plants,  small  trees,  etc.  The 
peasants  carry  away  the  bad  soil  of  a  school  garden, 
and  bring  the  good  earth  and  work  industriously  in  the 
laying  out.  I  am  in  possession  of  a  whole  list  of  de- 
mands for  school  gardens  in  this  district ;  from  noble- 
men, advocates,  clergymen,  teachers,  etc.  I  was  occu- 
pied for  several  years  in  the  work  of-  the  City  park  at 
Olmutz,  and  not  only  from  compatriots,  but  from  stran- 
gers at  a  great  distance,  who  were  unknown  to  me  per- 
sonally, and  who  did  not  know  the  plans,  did  I  .receive 
the  most  varied  assistance.  One  need  only  hammer 
away  at  such  things  to  succeed  at  last. 

Engineers,  architects,  gardeners  of  large  gardens,  and 
other  cultivated  men,  willingly  draw  up  a  plan  if  they 
are  asked,  and  have  become  interested  in  the  cause. 
According  to  my  experience  thus  far,  many  an  able  man 
in  every  community  which  expresses  the  wish  is  ready 
to  sketch  out  a  garden  plan,  as  soon  as  one  lays  before 
him  an  outline  of  the  territory  with  a  few  strokes,  and 
gives  him  a  description  of  the  place  and  its  surround- 
ings. The  space  to  be  taken  for  the  garden  offers  no 
special  difficulties.  Every  reader  of  this  essay  must  see 
for  himself  that  in  most  cases  the  school  garden,  like  the 
coat  in  the  hands  of  the  tailor,  must  be  cut  according 
to  the  cloth. 

The  community  must,  of  course,  bear  the  expense 
both  of  laying  out  and  supporting  the  school  gardens ; 
but  they  will  soon  bring  money  to  the  region,  and  the 
teacher  whose  home  garden  is  quite  separated  from  the 
school  proper,  and  who  has  the  greatest  trouble  about 
it,  soon  receives  half  of  the  net  income.  The  amount 


THE  REQUISITES. 


flowing  into  the  parish  box  serves  for  its  maintenance 
and  improvement,  and  for  providing  materials  of  teach- 
ing, and  other  school  purposes. 

REQUISITES    FOR   A   GARDEN. 

The  question  now  arises,  What  are  all  the  requisites 
of  a  good  school  garden  ? 

One  demand  is,  deeply  dug,  well  arranged  and  sanded 
paths,  which  shall  always  be  kept  clear  and  in  good 
condition  by  the  children  of  the  upper  classes.  A 
school  garden  which  would  comprise  every  thing  desir- 
able (that  is,  such  a  garden  as  should  be  appended  to 
an  institution  for  the  training  of  teachers)  should  con- 
tain 

1.  A  selection  of  the  characteristic  plants  of  the  plain 
and  meadow,  mountain  and  wood  of  the  given  country. 

2.  All  home  evergreen  and  foliage  trees  ;  at  least  one 
sample  of    each,  and    all   the  more    important   wood- 
shrubs. 

3.  A  seed  nursery  for  fruit,  a  nursery  for  the  improve- 
ment of  wild  stock  and  quinces,  a  collection  of  berry 
fruit  and  a  nursery  for  them,  plantations  of   precious 
fruit  trees,  and  especially  of  dWarf  fruit  trees,  and  where 
possible  a  trellis  for  wall  fruit  and  grape  vines. 

4.  An  agricultural  "  experiment  garden  "  of  several 
square  metres  —  that  is,  an  agricultural  botanic  garden 
proportioned   to  the   circumstances    of    the    place.     A 
small  but  very  complete  "  experiment  garden  "  was  rep- 
resented in  the  school  garden  at  the  Austrian  Exposi- 
tion, and  gave  much  pleasure.     In  the  school  garden  of 
a  teachers'  seminary  there  should  be  small  beds  also 
for  the  experimental  work  of  individual  pupils. 


THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 


5.  In  the  borders  around  the  "  experiment  garden  " 
there  should  be  a  collection  of  economical  and  techni- 
cal plants  of  the  home  region  ;  stalk  fruit,  hoe  fruit,  le- 
guminous plants,   and  fodder  plants,  as  far  as  they  do 
not  belong  in  the  "  experiment  garden  ;  "  also  aromatic, 
medicinal,  and  commercial  plants  of  all  kinds. 

6.  A  collection  of  the  chief  poisonous  plants  of  the 
home  region. 

7.  A  little  kitchen  garden  with  hot-bed  or  leaf-bed 
and  beds  for  planting  out.     The  leaf-beds  are  made  in 
boxes  and  covered  with  glass,  and  are  good  both  for 
raising  seeds  and  planting  slips.     They  can  be  used  in 
a  window  or  over  an  oven  or  stove,  and  are   made  of 
red  clay,  which  absorbs  warmth  from  the  sun  even  if  the 
glass  cover  is  shaded. 

8.  In  small  beds,  or  singly,  flowers,  high-bush  roses, 
ornamental  shrubs  and  perennials. 

9.  A  beehive  in  a  distant  part  of  the  garden. 

10.  A    small    plantation    of     mulberry    trees    and 
bushes  (in  southern  regions)  ;  and,  where  it  is  practi- 
cable, a  large  water  basin     A  fountain  belongs  to  every 
school. 

Since  the  school  has  patriotic  aims — that  is,  to  build 
up  an  army  ready  for  defence  and  capable  of  enthusiasm, 
there  should  be  a  gymnastic  ground  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  school-house.  If  this  can  be  within  the  school 
garden,  it  has,  like  the  covered  gymnastic  hall,  found 
its  most  beautiful  and  appropriate  location. 

EXPENSE   AND    FEASIBILITY. 

A  school  garden  which  contains  all  these  requisites 
does  not  need  an  extravagant  outlay  in  order  to  contain 


EXPENSE  AND  FEASIBILITY.  59 

• 
about  three  hundred  kinds  of  plants  for  the  purpose  of 

instruction  and  education. 

A  school  garden  worthy  of  the  name  is  practicable 
on  mountain  or  in  valley,  on  high  or  low  ground,  on  good 
or  bad  soil,  near  water  or  remote  from  water,  protected 
by  a  neighboring  wood  or  where  neither  wood,  meadow 
nor  tree  is  at  hand.  But  it  must  adapt  itself  to  any 
kind  of  territory,  and  be  of  regular  or  irregular  shape, 
according  to  circumstances.  To  be  practicable,  it  must, 
above  all  things,  conform  to  circumstances,  as  well  in  ref- 
erence to  its  shape — which  last  if  not  picturesque  can 
easily  be  masked  with  shrubbery — as  to  the  practical 
aims  it  pursues  in  reference  to  naturalizing  new,  and  per- 
fecting already  existing  branches  of  industry. 

But  no  one  must  think  that  one  school  garden,  in  or- 
der to  work  practically,  must  contain  all  the  advantages 
that  have  been  enumerated.  Such  gardens  would  only 
be  exceptions  ;  they  would  be  expensive,  since  they 
would  require  the  outlay  of  much  money  and  the  ser- 
vices of  a  specific  gardener.  In  short,  they  would  not 
be  necessary,  since  the  various  conditions  can  and  must 
be  essentially  distributed  in  the  city  and  country  school 
gardens. 

The  given  circumstances  and  the  counsel  of  compe- 
tent persons  must  first  determine  which  of  these  requisi- 
tions are  pressingly  necessary  in  a  given  place,  which 
are  very  desirable,  which  are  most  desirable  ;  not  only 
what  is  not  immediately  necessary  but  what  is  impracti- 
cable ;  in  fact,  whatever  element  has  been  overlooked  in 
this  sketch.  Above  all  things,  let  the  largest  possible 
area  be  given  to  the  school  garden,  so  that  its  already 
imagined  future  improvement  may  at  a  later  time  meet 
with  no  difficulties. 


60  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

DIFFERENT   KINDS    OF   GARDENS. 

The  different  kinds  of  school  gardens  may  be  desig- 
ated  as  :  i.  The  country  school  garden.  2.  The  school 
garden  for  small  cities.  3.  The  school  garden  for  large 
cities.  The  country  school  garden,  and  the  large  city 
school  garden,  may  be  taken  as  the  two  poles. 

FURTHER    PARTICULARS.  , 

In  the  country  school  garden,  the  central  point  is 
constituted  by  the  "  experiment  garden  for  boys/7  and 
the  kitchen  garden  and  nursery,  which  divide  the  terri- 
tory into  two  nearly  equal  parts.  The  borders  which 
encompass  the  beds  can  be  planted  alternately  with 
dwarf  fruit  trees,  between  which — in  the  kitchen  garden — 
strawberries  and  medicinal  plants  ;  and  in  the  "  experi- 
ment garden,"  economical  and  commercial  plants  will 
find  their  place.  Where  the  woods  are  very  near,  forest 
trees  and  bushes  need  not  take  up  the  room  in  the 
garden. 

The  large  country  school  garden  requires  the  beauty 
of  landscape  gardening.  In  Galizia,  through  the  in- 
fluence of  the  author,  school  gardens  have  a  park-like 
character,  and  only  the  garden  land  proper  is  limited 
by  straight  lines.  But  in  small  school  gardens,  the 
ground  must  be  used  as  far  as  possible  for  agricultural 
purposes.  The  paths  in  small  school  gardens  will 
therefore  be  narrow  and  straight.  The  more  valuable 
fruit  trees  cannot  be  in  great  numbers  ;  and  wall  fruit 
and  grape  vines  must  be  left  out,  as  these  do  not  belong 
to  the  first  and  essential  instruction  of  the  garden.  If 
the  garden  is  small,  the  beehive  must  be  dispensed 
with;  but  in  the  background  of  all  school  gardens  a 


DIFFERENT  KINDS  OF  GARDENS.  6 1 

place  must  be  reserved  for  compost  and  other  materials, 
and  a  forcing-bed  should  be  found  in  the  kitchen 
garden. 

In  the  school  garden  of  the  large  city,  the  "  experi- 
ment garden  "  must  be  dispensed  with.  The  kitchen 
garden  will  only  be  given  to  the  girls,  perhaps,  and  the 
nursery  must  be  contained  in  the  very  smallest  limits, 
or  left  out  altogether.  But  all  important  types  of  the 
home  flora  should  be  there  ;  forest  trees  and  shrubs, 
economical,  commercial,  medicinal  plants,  annuals,  per- 
ennials, spring  flowers,  and  plants  of  the  plain.  No 
one  will  wish  for  a  beehive  here.  But  the  gymnastic 
and  playground  must  be  in  or  near  the  garden.  The 
garden  work  and  movement  in  the  fresh  air  are,  in  a 
sanitary  point  of  view,  inestimable  to  city  children. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ITS   SOCIAL   AND   CLIMATIC   INFLUENCE. 

The  first  point  of  view,  in  which  the  rural  population 
should  recommend  the  acceptance  of  the  school  garden, 
is  the  elevation  it  will  effect  in  the  condition  of  the 
people.  How  a  hundred  useful  incentives  can  be  given 
in  it,  to  the  future  hfusbandman,  has  been  repeatedly 
pointed  out  in  this  little  work. 

If  the  State,  the  committees,  the  useful  unions,  or 
patriotic  men,  wish  to  naturalize  and  nationalize  a  new 
calling  which  is  connected  with  husbandry,  with  resi- 
dence in  the  country,  and  chiefly  with  mother  nature, 
then  will  the  teachers,  the  men,  the  school,  be  exclu- 
sively, or,  at  least  specially,  in  favor  of  the  school 
garden  and  a  place  for  it.  In  the  school  garden,  and 
by  means  of  it,  an  abundance  of  new  and  practical 
thoughts  will  be  diffused  among  the  people  ;  for,  in  the 
capability  of  perfection  of  the  school  garden  (no  mo- 
ment being  left  out  of  sight),  lie  the  seeds  of  new  dis- 
coveries and  inventions  which  are  to  be  made  by 
teachers,  by  compatriots,  by  the  friends  of  schools  and 
of  nature.  He  who  has  been  happy  for  eight  years  of 


ITS  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE.  63 

his  childhood  in  a  rational  school  garden  will  be  thank- 
ful all  his  life  for  this  paradise  of  his  first  years  ;  and 
will  be  earnest  to  contribute  his  own  mite  to  the  con- 
stant perfecting  of  an  institution  that  has  become  so 
dear  to  him.  How  much  will  this  further  the  elevation 
and  nursing  of  the  schools  !  Wherever  a  good  idea  has 
been  born  or  carried  into  practice  in  the  school  garden, 
it  will  become  immediately  common  property ;  for  the 
knowledge  of  it  will  spread  quickly.  A  good  garden 
will  soon  have  a  good  reputation,  and  will  be  visited  by 
the  neighboring  parishes.  The  ambition  of  the  outlying 
ones  will  have  a  praiseworthy  zeal  and  keep  watch  of  it. 
The  teachers,  on  their  side,  will  always,  in  numerous 
circles  and  country  conferences,  spread  the  new  thought, 
and  be  eager  to  imitate  that  which  appears  no  longer  as 
a  mere  theory,  but  as  a  beautiful  idea  whose  practica- 
bility one  else  might  doubt,  or  esteem  too  costly  ;  whose 
advantages  the  individual  could  otherwise  scarcely 
measure.  In  the  school  garden  an  opportunity  is  of- 
fered to  place  in  the  hands  of  the  children  improved 
English  and  American  tools,  and  to  domesticate  these 
among  the  whole  people  to  their  great  advantage. 
That  the  public  school  garden  must  essentially  further, 
directly  or  indirectly,  the  husbandry  of  the  country, 
needs  no  farther  exemplification.  Where  field  culture 
is  changed  into  garden  culture,  in  the  place  of  one  har- 
vest there  will  be  three  or  four  harvests  ;  the  value  of 
the  revenue  and  the  value  of  real  estate  will  stand  in 
corresponding  relation. 

FURTHER   ADVANTAGES. 

In  the  first  place,  a  rural  population,  well  instructed 
in  the  school  garden,  will  be  capable  of  carrying  on  the 


64  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

occupation  of  husbandry  in  a  rational  manner.  A 
revolution  is  taking  place  in  the  field  of  husbandry  in 
our  day  not  less  striking  than  in  that  of  national  science, 
industry,  and  technics  ;  and  has  not  the  school  a  direct 
duty  to  prepare  the  future  husbandsman  for  his  calling  ? 

The  time  is  past  in  which  it  could  be  thought  that 
the  husbandman  can  carry  on  his  work  with  no  other 
aid  than  raw  experience.  Without  the  knowledge  of 
natural  history,  or  without  a  general  good  amount  of 
culture  and  knowledge,  the  husbandman  is  lost,  at  a 
period  of  transition  from  a  method  that  has  been  out- 
lived to  one  regulated  upon  firm  scientific  principles. 
The  husbandman  needs  to  be  prepared  for  his  indus- 
try as  carefully  as  one  who  wishes  to  carry  on  any  com- 
monly called  city  industry.  Should  he  'complain  if  he 
lets  his  little  piece  of  ground  lie  fallow  after,  as  well  as 
before  tilling  it ;  if  he  lets  his  cow  go  hungry  half  the 
winter — chases  it  from  the  willow  grove  in  the  summer 
heat,  and  does  not  save  its  dung  till  after  it  has  become 
worthless  ?  Not  the  times  nor  the  accident  of  another 
branch  of  industry  is  to  be  complained  of,  but  his  own 
ignorance  and  want  of  understanding. 

Agricultural  unions,  popular  writings,  essays  scattered 
broadcast,  model  economies,  etc.,  perform  only  half 
their  task  if  their  theoretic  instruction  and  the  exhibi- 
tion of  the  object  for  practical  inspection,  and  the 
demonstration  of  the  way  in  which  it  is  to  be  applied, 
do  not  follow  directly.  And  this  can  be  done  most 
ably,  most  quickly,  and  most  naturally  in  the  school 
garden,  which  in  certain  circumstances- — for  instance  in 
a  poor  mountain  region,  where  an  agricultural  school  is 
impossible  in  the  neighborhood  (although  just  here  it 
would  help  a  most  pressing  need).  The  school  garden 


SOME  RESULTS.  65 


will  work  even  more  blessedly  than  an  inferior  agricul- 
tural school,  which  in  a  more  favored  region  the  expert 
of  modern  times  would  cast  aside. 

SOME   CONSEQUENCES. 

Old  ways  of  husbandry  must  be  changed  in  many 
points.  In  the  first  place,  "  the  culture  of  corn  must 
shrink  in  extent  but  rise  in  revenue  ;  that  is,  there  must 
in  future  be  more  of  it,  and  of  better  quality,  though  in 
a  smaller  area.  For  that  end  it  must  be  cultivated  in 
a  cheaper  manner,  that  the  net  proceeds  may  be  higher 
and  the  ground  harvest  richer."  Every  husbandman 
who  reckons  well  will  understand  this  necessity.  In 
the  second  place,  the  requisition  of  the  present  time  on 
the  husbandman  proclaims  that  "  in  the  place  of  the 
wheat  culture  that  used  to  be  so  imperative,  #n  increased 
culture  of  fodder  must  step  in.  The  breeding  of  cattle 
must  be  improved.  The  manure  must  be  much  more 
rich  and  abundant."  In  the  third  place,  "  the  demand 
requires  the  culture  of  commercial  plants  wherever  it  is 
possible."  In  the  fourth  place,  modern  times  demand 
*of  the  husbandman  that  he  mingle  some  other  occupa- 
tion with  his  agricultural  one  (something  that  has  a 
relation  to  agriculture),  in  case  he  fails  in  his  care  of 
his  cattle  and  farm. 

A  highly  important  part  of  the  school  garden  is  the 
cultivation  of  the  agricultural  "  experiment  field  "  en- 
joined by  the  Austrian  school  law.  The  pressure  of  the 
population  upon  the  means  of  subsistence  in  England 
and  Saxony,  in  the  last  twenty  years,  makes  it  impera- 
tive that  the  same  land  shall  yield  at  least  double  the 
amount  it  has  hitherto  yielded.  But  societies  of  all 
kinds,  unions,  writings,  essays,  expositions,  premiums, 
5 


66  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

schools  of  industry,  itinerant  teachers  and  lecturers, 
will  all  come  too  late  if  the  public  school  does  not  give 
a  stimulus  to  rational  improvement  in  agriculture  to 
the  children. 

Glorious  words  has  Settegast  uttered  upon  this  sub- 
ject :  "  It  cultivates  the  whole  man  who  must  stand  in 
noble  self-reliance,  that  his  activity  may  extend  over 
wide  circles  those  threads  of  influence  with  which  the 
welfare  of  the  whole  people  is  interwoven.  The  clods' 
of  the  homestead  cultivated  by  him  offer  a  stronghold 
which  is  proof  against  the  dark  powers  of  poverty  and 
immorality.  In  the  consciousness  of  wishing  and  offer- 
ing something  worthy  rests  the  highest  joy  of  the  hus- 
bandman. Out  of  this  consciousness  he  draws  the  ideal 
contemplation  of  his  calling."  Such  natures,  with  such 
practical,  moral  and  manly  views  of  life,  must  be  formed 
by  the  school  garden  in  increasing  numbers. 

Is  a  wide-spread  proof  necessary  to  show  that  even 
the  future  craftsman,  like  that  city  child  who  frequents 
no  other  school  than  the  public  school,  will  gain  a 
hundred  incitements  directly  or  indirectly  for  his  fu- 
ture calling  from  the  school  garden  ?  It  has  been* 
shown  plainly  that  the  greatest  part  of  the  instruction 
in  natural  science  has  a  natural  connection  with  the 
school  garden,  but  that  only  through  the  limiting  and 
concentrating  of  the  material,  can  that  be.  made  fruitful 
which  otherwise  it  would  be  better  to  cast  out  of  the 
public  school  as  mere  rubbish. 

BEAUTIFYING   THE    LAND. 

The  second  point  of  view  which  must  recommend 
the  general  spread  of  school  gardens  is  the  beautifying 
of  the  land,  which  will  unquestionably  be  among  their 


AN  EMPEROR'S  IDEA.  67 

first  fruits.  Beautiful  lands  are  made  still  more  charming 
and  are  more  sought  when  well  cultivated  ;  lands  that 
are  not  by  nature  beautiful  become  more  desirable  for 
their  own  citizens,  more  attractive  to  strangers,  when 
beautified  by  the  hand  of  man.  The  necessity  of  plant- 
ing and  improving  is  excited  and  increased  by  the  cul- 
ture of  imagination  in  the  child.  The  sense  of  beauty, 
planted  in  a  whole  people,  is  an  inestimable  capital. 

The  meritorious  idea  of  founding  societies  for  the 
beautifying  of  the  land  can  only  be  practicable  when 
the  children  in  the  schools  are  won  to  the  beauty  of 
nature.  A  rural  people  that  has  grown  up  in  school 
gardens  will  no  longer  suffer  the  disfigurement  of  offal 
in  the  streets  of  a  village.* 

The  Emperor  Joseph  II. 's  idea  of  planting  streets 
and  squares  with  trees  is  at  last,  one  hundred  years 
after  his  death,  likely  to  be  realized.  How  beautiful 
the  villages  will  be  thus  ornamented,  and  what  money 
will  flow  in  good  years  into  the  village  treasuries  ! 
When  the  village  streets,  squares  and  lanes  are  enlivened 
by  the  beauty  of  fruit  trees,  the  church-yards  will  be 
planted  for  sanitary  and  beautifying  purposes  ! 

The  village  streets  which  are  to  contain  trees  must 
of  necessity  be  broad  ;  but  many  walls  and  fences,  many 
railings  and  hedges  in  villages  can  be  covered  and  orna- 
mented with  grape  vines  and  trellis  fruit,  which  will 
take  up  little  room,  and  bring  in  much  money. 

ITS    SOCIAL    AND    CLIMATIC    INFLUENCES. 

Austria  should  be  ashamed  of  the  fact  that  many  coun- 

*  I  spare  the  minute  description,  and  am  happy  to  recognize  the  fact  that  no 
such  villages  exist  in  any  part  of  America  with  which  I  am  acquainted,  but  they 
are  apparently  worse  in  Austria  than  in  Germany,  where  no  American  can  fail  to 
be  shocked  at  the  spectacles  he  frequently  meets  with. — TR. 


68  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

tries  that  lie  farther  north  have  roads  and  lanes  planted 
with  trees,  while  fertile  plains  in  many  regions  here, 
where  valuable  fruit  could  easily  be  cultivated,  are 
totally  bare. 

Soon  the  beautifying  hand  of  man  will  work  over 
home,  garden  and  village.  Railroad  tracks,  as  in  Bel- 
gium, will  be  rich  sources  of  revenue  by  the  cultivation 
of  their  borders.  Many  empty  bits  of  land,  and  bare^ 
mountain  slopes  or  marshy  places  planted  with  bushes 
and  trees,  will  lend  another  physiognomy  to  the  region. 
The  environs  of  villages  will  be  planted  in  many  places 
with  fruit  trees,  and  where  this  is  not  advisable,  with 
forest  trees  and  shrubs';  and  many  hitherto  unprofit- 
able and  rude  landscapes  be  transmuted  into  pleasing 
and  profitable  ones.  All  the  by-ways  in  villages,  fields 
and  turnpikes  will  be  furnished  with  trees  or  shrubs. 
Living  hedges  will  surround  numerous  fields,  ridges 
and  dams  ;  the-  borders  of  brooks  and  the  edges  of 
ponds  will  be  ornamented  with  the  green  of  fruit  trees, 
or  with  forest  trees  and  shrubs.  In  the  cities,  trees 
will  stand  before  the  churches,  around  the  fountains, 
upon  the  sides  of  the  most  frequented  streets  and 
squares.  There  will  be  promenades  where  they  are  not 
now  thought  of.  And,  where  the  expense  is  feared, 
people  will  be  astonished  at  the  liberality  of  the  lovers 
of  man  and  nature  who  will  furnish  the  required  mate- 
rial, the  taste  being  once  excited. 

To  the  most  beautiful  fruits  of  school  gardens  be- 
longs the  improvement  that  will  take  place  in  home 
gardens.  Models  of  these  should  be  seen  in  all  school 
gardens  where  their  is  sufficient  space.  Not  only  for 
their  usefulness  but  for  recreation  is  a  home  garden 
invaluable  for  a  proprietor  and  his  family.  When 


IN  THE  CITIES. 


69 


children  are  capable  of  taking  part  in  it,  by  their  train- 
ing in  the  school  garden,  this  value  will  be  doubled. 
Now  they  are  too  often  shut  out  from  a  participation 
with  us  in  its  pleasures  because  the  luxury  is  so  expensive 
a  one  that  it  must  be  guarded  from  injury.  But  when 
it  is  chiefly  the  children's  work,  what  an  added  tie  it 
will  be  to  home  ! — TR.]  Plans  for  home  gardens  should 
be  given  to  the  children  in  school,  where  there  is  not 
space  for  actual  model  gardens,  and  societies  for  the 
beautifying  of  the  land  should  draw  up  these  plans  for 
the  school  gardens.  It  is  chiefly  the  teachers  who  issue 
from  the  teachers'  seminaries  upon  whom  will  devolve 
the  pleasant  duty  of  modelling,  improving  and  extending 
the  home  garden  ;  and  with  them  will  be  found  the 
treasury  of  beautiful  plans. 

EFFECT   IN   CITIES. 

How  much  more  beautiful  will  life  in  the  cities  be, 
\ 

when  the  possessors  of  great  dwelling  houses  can  give 
their  inmates  the  enjoyment  of  a  home  garden,  or  at 
least  of  a  grass-plot  ornamented  with  flowers  and  shrubs  ! 
And  how  deeply  will  it  be  engraved  in  the  hearts  of  the 
rural  population  when  the  peasants'  gardens,  one  of  the 
most  immemorial  forms  of  cultivation,  will  be  again  a 
common  source  of  enjoyment  in  places  that  do  not  pos- 
sess it  to-day !  In  a  polyglot  kingdom,  offering  such 
manifold  stages  of  material  and  spiritual  culture  as  the 
Austro-Hungarian  monarchy,  one  has  an  opportunity  to 
find  types  of  a  national  home  garden  stamped  by  the 
whole  people.  But  most  home  gardens  of  most  nations, 
both  Slavic  and  Roman,  form  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
ideal  attainable  under  the  various  given  conditions  in 
modern  times.  They  bear  the  inherited  impress  of 


THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 


hundreds  of  years,  and  only  the  school  —  that  is  the 
school  garden  —  can  bring  about  a  general  and  thorough- 
going change. 

A  third  point  of  view  which  should  lead  school  boards 
to  promote  the  spread  of  school  gardens,  is  the  neces- 
sity of  combating  our  degenerated  meteorological  and 
climatic  conditions.  The  fearful  consequences  of  the 
increasing  devastation  and  rooting  out  of  woodlands, 
as  well  as  the  reckless  drying  up  of  ponds  and  marshes, 
increase  from  year  to  year  in  a  frightful  measure.  In 
the  first  place  stands  the  withdrawal  of  water  from 
our  springs  and  flowing  rivers.  Then  comes  the  weeks 
and  months  of  alternate,  persistent,  devastating  droughts, 
and  equally  destructive  rainfalls. 

WHY  TREES  SHOULD  BE  PLANTED. 

If  Schmall's  theories  of  the  world-wide  fluctuations 
of  the  surface  of  seas  are  correct  ;  and  if  the  scarcity 
of  water  is  increasing  in  the  whole  northern  hemisphere 
in  consequence  of  an  inexorable  law  of  nature,  this 
fact  must  spur  us  on  with  double  force  to  combat  the 
deficiency  of  water  that  threatens  us  with  ruin.  It  is 
not  to  be  overlooked,  that  the  impoverishment  of  Spain, 
Sicily,  Greece,  the  Kars  (a  domain  just  north  of  Trieste), 
Turkey,  Egypt,  Mexico,  and  even  of  some  islands,  is 
due  to  this  destruction  of  forests  in  those  countries. 

In  late  years  even  Austria  has  brought  to  mind  in  a 
staggering  manner  that  this  evil  must  be  met  quickly, 
and  with  comprehensive  measures,  if  ruin  is  not  to  en- 
sue, and  if  many  a  landscape  is  not  to  be  obliterated 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years.  For  instance,  in  a  part 
of  middle  and  eastern  Bohemia.  The  means  of  redress 
are  not  difficult  to  find.  They  consist,  apart  from  the 


RESTORATION  OF  WOODS. 


sparing  and  nursing  of  the  still  standing  and  new  woods, 
in  the  vigorous  planting  of  trees  on  a  large  scale  in  the 
whole  land, — indeed  in  every  land.  Trees  must  be 
planted  not  only  in  the  streets,  where  they  are  for  the 
most  part  found  now,  but  on  lanes,  on  ridges  and  hil- 
locks, and  on  dams.  What  room  the  railroad  dams  oc- 
cupy !  Also,  around  all  springs  of  water,  on  the  shores  of 
all  brooks,  on  the  edges  of  all  ponds,  on  bare  moun- 
tain slopes  and  in  all  waste  places.  Street  and  village 
lanes  and  house  gardens  must  be  increased  in  number 
for  this  purpose,  and  should  be  well  planted.  This  can- 
not be  effected  by  one  effort ;  and  our  country  popula- 
tion must  be  gained  over  to  this  idea,  and  be  convicted 
of  their  indolence. 

The  preliminary  condition  of  improvement  is  the  sys- 
tematic foundation  of  school  gardens  in  the  whole  land. 
Even  the  artificially  planted  woods,  with  their  ditches 
to  carry  off  the  superfluous  water,  can  never  give  again 
to  a  country  that  abundance  of  moisture  which,  in  former 
times,  the  original  forests  distributed  far  and  wide. 
Still  less  can  large  plantations  of  fruit  trees  make  up 
for  the  woods  of  past  times.  But,  in  co-operation  with 
other  plantings,  they  will  combat  the  increasing  drought 
in  many  countries  ;  and  those  drying  winds  which  now 
blow  in  so  many  regions  over  the  bare  fields  and  open 
cultivated  plains,  to  the  great  injury  of  the  growth  of 
plants,  and  which  carry  off  from  the  ground  the  ammo- 
niacal  contents  which  are  necessary  to  plant  life,  to- 
gether with  the  indispensable  moisture,  will  finally  be 
arrested.  With  the  restoration  of  the  woods,  the  air 
and  earth  will  again  attain  the  necessary  moisture  ;  the 
extremes  of  the  differences  of  temperature  between  day 
and  night  will  diminish;  luxurious  orchards  will  no 


THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 


longer  dry  up  and  be  frost-bitten  in  summer,  and  the 
produce  of  the  fields  will  not  prove  abortive  on  fruitful 
land, — since  the  woods,  as  a  medium  between  earth  and 
air,  regulate  all  climatic  extremes. 

HEALTH   CONSIDERATIONS,    ETC. 

It  is  not  to  be  overlooked,  at  the  same  time,  that  not 
only  must  the  land  become  richer  and  more  beautiful,^ 
but  also  more  healthy,  when  the  hand  of  man  produces 
such  extensive  sources  of  oxygen  and  purifiers  of  the 
air. 

All  the  points  of  view  here  enumerated — the  promo- 
tion of  the  welfare  of  the  people,  the  beautifying  of  the 
land,  the  combating  of  our  meteorological  conditions, 
etc. — will  often  in  realization  be  connected  with  greater 
objects.  This  may  be  shown  by  an  example  which  will 
directly  illustrate  the  part  that  may  be  played  by  school 
gardens  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  great  city. 

Vienna  lies  in  the  midst  of  a  beautiful  country  on  the 
spurs  of  the  most  beautiful  mountain  chain  on  the  earth. 
The  landscape  around  Vienna  can  by  no  means  be 
called  a  poor  one  ;  but  if  you  compare  the  environs  of 
Vienna  with  those  of  Paris,  an  astonishingly  great  dif- 
ference may  be  seen.  Paris  lies  bedded  in  a  garland  of 
gardens  ;  and  the  agriculture  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
capital  understands  how  to  use  all  the  means  of  modern 
science  in  glorious  measure,  and  to  convert  the  refuse 
of  that  world  city  into  a  rich  blessing  of  cultivation. 
Vienna  exhibits  before  its  gates  many  an  example  of  a 
perverted  agriculture,  in  its  fallow  land.  The  cultiva- 
tion of  vegetables  in  the  neighborhood  of  Vienna  is 
hardly  carried  on  at  all.  Scarcely  any  thing  but  the  com- 
monest kinds  of  fruit  trees  are  cultivated  \  pod  fruits  in 


A  FINANCIAL  MISFORTUNE.  73 

very  small  quantities.  The  prices  of  flour  and  fruit  are 
often  shameful ;  and  so  are  the  prices  of  other  products 
of  the  vegetable  kingdom.  But  these  high  prices  for 
very  ordinary  goods  do  not  usually  profit  the  producer, 
but  only  help  the  greedy  or  covetous  middlemen.  Vi- 
enna spends  yearly  as  much  as  300,000  florins  for  the 
cleaning  of  the  sewers.  The  fecal  matters  of  the  me- 
tropolis are  wasted  in  the  most  grievous  manner — for 
they  are  conducted  into  the  channel  of  the  Danube. 
It  is  a  financial  misfortune,  and  certainly  no  honor, 
that  Vienna  was  not  long  ago,  like  the  Italian  and 
French  cities,  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  vegetable  gar- 
dens, fruit  gardens  and  pleasure  gardens.  The  environs 
of  Vienna  ought  to  be  so  transformed  in  a  wide  circuit, 
in  an  agricultural  point  of  view,  that  a  whole  zone  could 
be  cultivated  with  vegetables,  another  zone  be  covered 
with  leguminous  plants,  and  still  other  zones  be  divided 
between  the  growth  and  culture  of  large  fruits  and  grape 
vines — and  of  strawberries  grown  in  the  open  air,  which 
bring  so  much  revenue  to  many  a  Thuringian  locality. 
Of  flowers  and  fancy  plants,  of  ornamental  shrubs,  etc., 
the  same  may  be  said.  These  zones  should  be  arranged 
and  established  by  the  Royal  Imperial  Society  of  Agri- 
culture. All  this  is  practicable  as  soon  as  water  is 
brought  into  the  city ;  but  who  can  believe  that  this 
complete  revolution  can  take  place  in  the  domain  of 
agriculture,  in  the  environs  of  Vienna,  if  the  rising  gen- 
eration does  not  receive  the  requisite  incitements  at  the 
school  age,  and  in  good  school  gardens  ? 

North  of  Vienna,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Danube, 
stretches  the  "  Marchfeld,"  an  ugly  strip  of  land  of  a 
decided  steppe  character,  passing  here  and  there 
through  swamps.  Its  nearness  to  Vienna,  which  needs 


74 


THE  SCHOOL   GARDEN. 


to  be  provided  with  the  means  of  subsistence,  should 
spur  the  inhabitants  of  this  plain  to  change  their  ter- 
ritory into  a  plenitude  of  gardens.  In  some  parts  the 
ground  is  good ;  in  other  places  the  cherries  have 
scorned  all  endeavors  to  draw  them  out  of  the  fruit 
trees. 

The  engineer,  O.  V.  Altvatoer,  has  worked  out  a  plan 
of  a  comprehensive  State  irrigation,  and  Baron  Pirquet 
has  already  proved,  by  an  astonishing  example,  what ' 
can  be  accomplished  in  this  unpropitious  region  by  ra- 
tional irrigation  and  superposition  of  manure  dissolved 
in  water.  Who  could  deny  that  all  such  efforts  would 
be  guided  and  furthered  by  prudent  activity  in  the 
school  gardens  ? 

THE  MORAL  STIMULUS. 

The  best  laws  remain  inoperative,  the  best  counsels 
are  preached  to  deaf  ears,  if,  in  tender  youth,  sense  and 
understanding  are  not  enlisted  for  wholesome  innova- 
tions. Above  all  things,  we  can  make  youth  happy  if 
we  give  him  an  opportunity  to  do  garden  work.  The 
author  knows  of  a  military  school  whose  pupils  made  a 
heat  little  garden,  in  the  great  yard,  without  any  special 
guidance.  In  all  other  lands  to-day  the  soldier  is  still 
feared  by  the  possessors  of  large  open  territory.  In 
France,  on  the  contrary,  simple  soldiers  create  charming 
plantations  in  tents.  There  are  plenty  of  barracks  in 
which,  without  interfering  with  military  purposes,  they 
can  be  permitted  to  have  little  plantations  along  the 
walls.  The  army  is  called  the  school  of  men,  and  not 
without  justice.  Why  shall  not  the  soldier,  who  cir- 
culates very  much  round  the  world,  be  the  pioneer  of  so 
important  a  thought,  which  he  can  put  in  practice  in  his 


THE  MAN  OF  DEEDS. 


75 


distant  mountain  village  ?  He  must  be  especially  the 
man  of  deeds.  He  is  called  upon  like  every  other 
citizen  to  keep  sacred  the  arts  of  peace.  But  higher 
than  all  else  stands  the  enhanced  morality  of  the  peo- 
ple, which  can  be  so  well  inculcated  through  the  school 
garden. 

CLOSING  WORDS   OF   DR.   SCHWAB. 

I  am  conscious  of  having  found,  in  the  idea  devel- 
oped in  these  pages,  nothing  that  is  new.  I  have  per- 
haps only  given  expression  to  what  many  others  feel 
darkly,  to  what  still  others  recognize  clearly ;  and, 
indeed,  what  others  have  partially  expressed  before  me 
— if  not  in  this  connection,  or  with  the  same  sharpness, 
a  thought  which  is  floating  as  it  were  in  the  air.  I  have 
attempted  to  write  as  cheap  a  treatise  as  possible 
about  my  view  of  the  subject,  as  to  what  a  rational 
school  garden  might  be  able  to  offer,  and  what  it  really 
will  offer.  My  design  is  to  stimulate  to  the  creation  of 
school  gardens  fitted  to  time  and  place.  That  the  idea 
here  expressed  does  not  possess  all  the  perfection  of 
which  it  can  be  imagined  capable,  is  clear  to  me.  I 
hope,  therefore,  that  other  men  who  are  superior  to  me 
in  endowment,  knowledge  and  experience,  may  seize 
upon  the  idea,  improve  it  and  develop  it ;  but,  above 
all  things,  may  they  help  to  turn  the  thought  into  acts ! 

In  Austria,  unquestionably,  the  new  school  law  will 
be  brought  into  the  closest  connection  with  the  regen- 
eration of  the  fatherland.  A  new  spirit  will  penetrate 
the  public  school,  and  inaugurate  a  new  time. 

Already  fresh  life  is  infused  into  the  domain  of  in- 
struction in  theory  and  practice.  City  and  country, 
every  community,  the  whole  world  of  teachers,  every 


76  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

cultivated  family,  every  individual  thinking  mind,  busies 
itself  at  present  with  the  first  of  all  the  questions  of  life 
— the  Empire  State.  Six  years  have  passed  since  the 
promulgation  of  the  excellent  law,  and  already  a  quiet 
and  noiseless,  but  so  much  the  more  persistent  process 
of  revolution  in  public  instruction  penetrates  into  the 
depths  of  the  life  of  the  people.  Already  we  can  say 
that,  according  to  the  understanding,  the  zeal,  the  self- 
sacrifice  with  which  every  individual  as  well  as  every 
community  accompanies  this  revolution  and  takes  a 
working  interest  in  it,  can  the  degree  of  culture,  and 
the  morals  of  the  individual  and  the  community  be 
judged. 

The  erection,  preservation  and  care  of  the  public 
school  is  the  first  consideration  of  the  local  authority. 
It  is  at  present  the  most  important  problem  of  that  local 
authority ;  upon  its  worthy  solution  depends  the  whole 
future  of  that  authority's  welfare. 

Among  all  the  arrangements  of  the  State,  the  school 
takes  the  front  place  ;  for  the  school  is  the  nursery  of 
the  intelligence,  the  morality,  the  industry,  the  national- 
ity, the  justice,  the  power  and  the  genuine  love  of  the 
fatherland.  That  the  timely  foundation  of  school  gar- 
dens, in  city  and  country,  will  help  essentially  to  fur- 
ther the  task  of  public  education,  should  be  clear  to 
every  reader  of  this  little  pamphlet.  Good  school  gar- 
dens will  also  be  sources  of  health,  of  spiritual  refine- 
ment and  cheerfulness  to  the  teacher  ;  they  will  make 
it  easier  to  him  to  teach  simply,  freshly,  lovingly,  prac- 
tically, to  educate  youth  naturally,  and  to  make  him 
acquainted  with  individualities.  They  will  solve  the 
questions  in  natural  history  surely  and  quietly  because 
founded  upon  the  love  of  work,  and  therefore  upon  one 


CLOSING  WORDS. 


77 


of  the  roots  of  human  activity.  The  school  garden  al- 
lows itself  to  be  incorporated  into  every  city  and  coun- 
try school  without  disturbing  the  corporate  organism  of 
the  instruction.  It  makes  the  task  of  the  school  not 
more  difficult,  but  easier ;  it  is  possible  almost  every- 
where even  if  under  limitations.  That  law  and  pre- 
scription cannot  enforce  a  real  execution  of  this  mate- 
rial of  teaching  and  education- — that  almost  every  thing 
depends  upon  the  insight  and  the  understanding  of  the 
school  constituency,  is  certainly  not  to  be  denied.  Just 
as  the  school-houses  of  to-day  are  built  differently  from 
those  of  former  times  ;  as  school  furniture,  means  of 
instruction,  methods,  plans,  object  of  teaching,  and  what- 
ever else  belongs  to  the  school,  have  changed — so  the 
gardens  that  here  and  there  have  belonged  to  schools 
must  be  changed,  if  they  are  to  meet  the  demands  of 
modern  times. 

OPINIONS   SOLICITED. 

In  conclusion,  all  teachers  and  friends  of  schools, 
and  of  mankind,  are  requested  to  let  the  author  have 
the  benefit  of  all  their  experiences  about  school  gar- 
dens. We  want  their  opposing  views  as  well  as  their 
propositions  for  improvement ;  and  their  new  thoughts, 
in  the  interest  of  the  cause,  either  in  the  form  of  letters 
or  through  the  press.  Every  critical  remark,  even  to 
the  demolition  of  the  ideas  expressed  here,  will  be  re- 
ceived gratefully.  All  the  friends  of  schools  are  re- 
quested to  give  information  to  the  author  of  the  laying 
out  of  new  school  gardens ;  and,  if  possible,  to  send 
him  a  sketch  of  any  such. 

And  now,  teachers,  physicians,  clergymen,  school  in- 
spectors, surveyors,  parish  committees,  senators,  unions 


78  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

and  societies,  friends  of  youth  and  of  the  people,  what- 
ever officers  or  potentates  there  may  be — take  unto 
yourselves  the  idea  of  the  school  garden,  and  introduce 
it  into  active  life  ! 

The  school  garden  is  secured  a  good  future  on  Aus- 
trian ground.  The  Austrian  people,  with  its  warm  re- 
ceptivity of  every*  thing  good,  its  keen  sense  of  beauty, 
and  its  matchless  capacity  for  self-sacrifice  in  every  t 
thing  that  concerns  the  schools,  will  vie  with  Sweden  in 
the  field  of  the  school  garden. 

A  time  will  come  when  it  will  be  difficult  to  under- 
stand how,  for  centuries  hitherto,  public  school  instruc- 
tion and  educational  institutions  have  been  able  to  exist 
without  school  gardens,  so  simple  and  obvious  is  the 
idea — but  that  time  will  not  come  of  itself.  Hundreds 
and  hundreds  of  actively  benevolent  men  must  put  their 
hands  to  the  work  for  the  furthering  of  this  ideal  con- 
ception— which  must  be  connected  with  the  whole  ful- 
ness of  life,  in  order  powerfully  to  further  the  advance 
of  the  people  in  both  the  material  and  spiritual  spheres. 


CHAPTER  V. 

PRACTICAL   SUGGESTIONS    BY   MRS.    HORACE   MANN. 

Dr.  Schwab's  little  work  has  been  given  entire,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  paragraphs.  Perhaps  more  that 
is  chiefly  of  local  interest  might  have  been  left  out,  if  it 
had  not  been  for  the  danger  of  marring  the  unity  and 
the  earnest  flow  of  the  style.  As  the  work  of  making 
school  gardens  is  eminently  a  practical  one,  I  proceed 
to  give  suggestions  as  to  what  can  be  done  with  us  at 
once  about  them. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that,  while  many  of  our  towns 
have  committees  for  improvement,  and  the  practice  of 
setting  out  trees  is  very  general  in  the  streets  of  our 
country  towns,  and  even  suburban  cities,  the  school- 
yards are  bare  of  every  attraction  !  Nothing  gives  a 
stronger  impression  of  the  "  abomination  of  desolation  " 
than  to  enter  one  of  them.  But  they  are  generally  wide 
enough  to  admit  of  a  wide  border  that  can  be  adorned 
with  the  wild-flowers  of  the  neighborhood,  which  Mr. 
William  Falconer,  in  the  Rural  New  Yorker  of  March 
3oth  and  April  6th,  1878,  assures  us  grow  well  when 
transplanted  from  the  woods  to  good  garden  mold.  As 

(79) 


8o  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

few  will  probably  take  the  trouble  to  send  for  these  ar- 
ticles to  the  Rural  New  Yorker,  so  much  of  them  as 
will  contribute  to  the  work  of  the  adornment  of  our 
school  gardens  will  be  given  here. 

OUR   WILD   FLOWERS. 

It  may  not  be  known  that  several  hundred  plants 
bloom  in  the  fields  in  May,  as  many  others  "in  June,  as 
many  more  in  July,  half  as  many  more  in  August,  and 
a  few  in  September.  Some  of  our  amateur  botanists 
have  lovingly  watched  and  recorded  the  birthday — that 
is,  the  flowering  day  of  all  these  plants.  From  such  a 
list  we  select  the  prettiest,  and  those  easiest  of  cultiva- 
tion for  the  school  garden.  Mr.  Falconer's  love  of  his 
science  has  gone  so  far  as  to  induce  him  to  divide  them 
by  their  colors,  as  if  he  knew  school  gardens  were  to  be 
the  next  things  to  be  made  in  this  busy  world.  He  has 
also  preserved  the  familiar  names,  which  are  prettier 
for  children  to  know  than  the  botanical  ones.  The  kin- 
dergarden,  and  primary  school  children  at  least,  can 
wait  till  the  days  of  systematic  botany  come  into  their 
curriculum,  before  learning  the  Latin  words  that  are  so 
meaningless  to  them.  The  chief  reason  for  putting 
these  wild  flowers  into  the  school  gardens,  is,  that  they 
begin  to  bloom  in  April,  and  run  through  May  and 
June,  while  the  annuals  cannot  be  sown  in  our  cold  cli- 
mate with  any  certainty  of  success  until  June,  and  many 
do  not  bloom  until  July.  No  less  than  forty  wild  flow- 
ers of  all  colors  bloom  in  April  and  May, — bloodr.oot, 
anemones,  violets,  trilliums,  dandelions,  buttercups, 
marigolds,  uvularia,  dog-tooth  violets,  hawthorns,  co- 
lumbines, ladies'  slippers,  geranium,  Dutchman's 
breeches,  wake-robin,  wild-rose,  queen  of  the  prairie, 


OBJECT  OF  INTEREST.  8 1 

spirea,  wild  verbena,  Solomon's  seal.  The  children  can 
look  for  them  on  their  very  birthdays,  and  thus  add  two 
months  to  the  pleasures  of  their  gardens. 

WHAT    CHILDREN    LOVE. 

It  is  well  to  know  that  many  plants,  roses,  honey- 
suckles, etc.,,  will  go  on  blooming  almost  double  the 
time,  if  the  withered  flowers  are  immediately  cut  off. 
Children  in  a  school  garden  will  like  nothing  better  than 
to  use  the  scissors  for  that  purpose.  The  small  experi- 
ence gained  in  kindergardens  that  have  a  garden  (these 
are  very  few,  alas !)  is  sufficient  to  prove  how  children 
love  the  work,  and  how  they  carry  the  love  of  it  away 
from  the  kindergarden  ;  and  what  personages  plants  be- 
come to  them,  as  favorite  kittens  and  dogs  do  who  be- 
come part  of  a  family  circle.  One  little  fellow  whose 
parents  had  a  magnificent  garden,  asked  the  kinder- 
garden  teacher,  when  she  visited  the  family,  to  go  with 
him  to  his  home  garden.  He  did  not  take  any  notice 
of  the  splendid  flowers  that  dazzled  her  eyes  as  she  fol- 
lowed him.  At  last  they  came  to  the  spot.  The  object 
of  interest  to  the  little  boy  was — a  potato  vine,  on  which 
a  few  blossoms  had  appeared.  The  teacher  had  ad- 
vised the  children,  who  had  home  gardens,  to  plant  each 
a  potato,  and  watch  it.  She  had  no  garden  in  the  kin- 
dergarden, except  in  flower-pots  in  the  window,  where 
each  had  planted  a  few  .peas.  These  peas  were  well 
watched  and  tended  ;  and  actually  bore,  not  only  flowers, 
but  a  pod  or  two,  which  pods  were  duly  gathered  and 
taken  home  to  be  boiled.  Another  little  boy  of  five, 
worked  an  hour  or  two  to  dig  up  and  pot  a  geranium 
that  he  feared  the  frost  would  spoil  in  the  garden  border, 
and  lugged  it  up  to  the  house  with  great  difficulty.  Even 

6 


82  .  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

in  the  flower-pots  of  the  kindergarden  the  turnip  can  be 
planted  or  brought  to  seed,  and  the  children  can  be 
shown,  by  planting  rice  or  other  seeds  upon  damp  cotton 
in  a  glass  tumbler  or  other  dish,  the  very  process  of 
daily  growth  ;  also  that  plants  can  be  grown  not  only 
from  seeds  but  by  slips — and  that  these  must  be  kept 
out  of  the  sun,  and  always  moist,  until  they  are  rooted. 
The  first  new  leaf  that  proves  success  gives  an  exquis- 
ite pleasure  to  a  child  (and  not  only  to  a  child  but  to  a 
veteran).  The  thought,  too,  that  man  can  help  God 
beautify  the  earth  by  preparing  the  ground  properly  at 
a  certain  place,  and  keeping  all  the  requisite  conditions, 
may  be  implanted  early  in  the  young  soul,  which  can  be 
shown  so  many  analogies  between  itself  and  nature's 
processes,  in  the  visible  world.  The  very  word  kinder- 
garden  is  a  mine  of  thought. 

"  What  are  the  flowers  of  the  kindergarden  ?  These 
plants  that  you  see  are  the  flowers  of  the  sun,"  said  a 
kindergarden  teacher  one  day.  "  The  children,"  was 
the  immediate  answer  all  round.  Upon  this  text  what 
cannot  be  said  ?  The  whole  process  of  growth  in  good- 
ness, with  the  '  we  of  God  for  its  sunshine,  can  be 
shown  in  the  daily  life  of  the  little  kindergarden  family  ; 
and  those  who  really  know  children  by  observation  and 
study,  know  that  they  can  take  ideas  and  reproduce 
them  in  their  own  words. 

SOME   FURTHER    HINTS. 

The  expense  of  putting  a  border  six  feet  wide  around 
a  school  yard  ninety-six  feet  square,  is  about  fifty  dol- 
lars. This  involves  digging  out  the  sand  and  putting 
in  the  mould.  The  rest  of  the  adornment  can  be  done 
by  the  children  of  the  school.  A  grass-plot  opposite 


SUGGESTIONS. 


the  door  to  be  shaded  in  time  with  trees,  is  a  very  de- 
sirable adjunct  to  this  border  as  given  in  the  accom- 
panying plan.  It  will  be  delightful  to  the  children  to 
have  a  seat  on  the  grass-plot,  where  they  can  eat  their 
lunch  at  recess,  and  rest  occasionally  from  their  light 
garden  work.  An  hour  a  day,  including  recess,  can  be 
given  to  this  work  under  the  superintendence  of  the 
teacher ;  and  soon,  doubtless,  the  children  will  visit  it 
and  work  in  it  out  of  school  hours,  especially  those  who 
reside  near.  A  day  or  an  afternoon  set  apart  occasion- 
ally for  visiting  the  woods  in  search  of  plants  will  soon 
fill  the  borders,  and  annuals  can  be  planted  at  pleasure. 
Trees  in  the  corners  of  the  yard  and  vines  over  the 
walls,  will  make  it  a  charming  field  of  labor  for  the 
pupils ;  and  we  will  venture  to  predict  that  if  the 
teachers  make  the  most  of  such  beginnings,  it  will  not 
be  long  before  larger  domains  are  provided,  and  com- 
plete school  gardens  created  here  as  in  Austria.  No 
one  can  read  Dr.  Schwab's  treatise  without  feeling  con- 
vinced of  the  utility  of  this  plan  both  for  instruction 
and  happiness.  Some  persons  have  suggested  that  van- 
dalism will  destroy  such  gardens  ;  but  I  think  better  of 
human  nature.  I  would  not  venture  yet  to  cultivate 
fruits.  We  must  wait  for  this  till  school  gardens  are 
protected  by  the  authorities,  or  till  the  cultivated  tastes 
of  the  people  do  the  work.  But  the  cultivation  of  flow- 
ers and  flowering  shrubs  will  subdue  the  temptations  of 
appetite,  which  we  know  poor  human  nature  cannot  re- 
sist. Under  paternal  governments,  like  that  of  Austria, 
it  is  easy  to  make  sudden  changes  of  this  sort ;  but 
Where,  as  in  our  country,  every  thing  waits  for  the  im- 
provement of  public  opinion,  we  must  be  content  to 
wait  for  fruit  trees  in  school  gardens. 


84  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

ABOUT. 

Every  one  knows  that  there  is  danger  of  the  total 
rooting  out  of  wild  flowers,  and  ferns,  in  the  vicinity 
of  most  of  our  cities,  and  even  towns.  To  perpetuate 
and  improve  them  in  gardens  is  quite  a  new  idea, 
and  worthy  of  being  cherished.  Let  us  try  it,  and  no 
longer  be  dependent  upon  seeds  that  bid  us  farewell 
when  they  are  put  into  the  ground,  as  most  of  our  pur- 
chased seeds  do.  Those  who  have  hoped  for  better 
things  from  the  distribution  of  seeds  from  the  patent 
office  have  been  doomed  to  specially  bitter  disappoint- 
ments, as  the  writer  can  testify,  whose  hope  is  well-nigh 
immortal,  and  who  has  tried  them  for  nearly  sixty  years  ! 
Even  the  lawn-seed,  that  the  seed-men  assure  us  to  be 
good,  sometimes-  comes  up — chickweed  !  A  few  hardy 
things  come  up,  perhaps — perhaps  not.  They  more 
frequently  disappoint  hope. 

A  bright  farmer  is  reported  in  the  New  York  Tribune 
to  test  his  seeds  by  fitting  and  covering  a  dinner-plate 
with  fine  flannel,  keeping  it  wet,  and  laying  his  fine 
seeds  upon  it.  All  that  are  genuine  will  throw  up  white 
shoots ;  and  he  thus  judges  how  much  waste  he  is  to 
allow  for  in  planting.  It  is  well  said  that  the  best  way 
to  get  good  seeds  is  to  raise  them.  Dr.  Schwab  speaks 
of  seed-nurseries  as  one  of  the  indispensable  things  in  a 
school  garden  that  is  not  too  cramped  in  size.  The 
seed  should  be  gathered  from  the  main  stocks  of  the 
plants,  rather  than  from  laterals.  In  gardens  that  are 
merely  ornamental,  plants  are  not  allowed  to  go  to 
seed,  because  the  process  of  ripening  injures  the  comeli- 
ness of  the  plant ;  and,  where  the  plant  is  perennial, 
that  is  to  be  considered,  and  many  annuals  are  very 


CATS  AND  DOGS.  85 


unsightly  in  the  ripening  season;  but  a  seed-nursery 
obviates  these  objections. 

ABOUT   CATS,    ETC. 

In  soil  that  is  half  peat,  wild  flowers  from  the  woods 
thrive,  if  well  cared  for.  Violets  and  hepaticas,  hous- 
tonia  and  meadow  pink  grow  very  large,  and  the  violets 
will  give  lovely  blossoms  in  October  as  well  as  in 
spring.  It  seems  as  if  the  light  of  some  eyes  made 
flowers  grow,  but  they  must  be  enlightened  eyes  that 
see  what  is  to  be  done,  or  that  find  out  from  the 
heart  that  is  behind  the  eyes,  and  which  loves  the  flow- 
ers. Anthracite  coal  and  gas  are  the  arch  enemies  of 
house-plants.  All  sorts  of  worms  must  be  watched  for 
in  the  garden,  and  toads  and  birds  cherished  and 
attracted.  Cats  must  be  decidedly  abolished.  Cats 
not  only  drive  away  birds  but  scratch  up  garden  bor- 
ders. It  is  striking  to  see  how  soon  birds  will  return 
to  a  garden  when  several  cats  have  been  shot.  Kittens 
are  charming  as  long  as  their  mothers  nurse  them  ;  but 
when  the  latter  lose  their  love  for  them,  and  begin  to 
cuff  them  and  turn  them  upon  the  cold  world  for  sub- 
sistence, look  out  for  the  birds  !  If  kittens  are  begun 
with  early,  and  judiciously  trained,  however,  they  will 
bring  in  the  birds  unharmed,  and  lay  them  at  your  feet, 
and  will  gradually  learn  not  to  touch  them.  Such  kittens 
may  be  allowed  to  turn  into  cats.  Dogs  are  dangerous 
in  gardens — particularly  if  any  squirrels  linger  in  the 
neighborhood,  as  they  do  a  long  time  near  country  resi- 
dences. 

WHITE   FLOWERS    OF   SPRING. 

Wood  anemona,  anemonae  nemorosa,  April,  May; 
creeping  fleabane,  erigeron  flagellare,  May ;  sharp  lobed 


86  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

liverwort,  hepatica  acutiloba,  May;  Solomon's  seal, 
polygonatum  giganteum,  May,  June ;  bloodroot,  san- 
guinaria  canadensis,  April,  May ;  rue  anemone,  thalic- 
trum  anemonoides,  May  ;  white  violet,  viola  rotundifo- 
lia,  May  ;  star  flower,  trientalis  Americana,  May ;  large 
flowered  birthroot,  trillium  giganteum,  May  ;  dwarf 
birthroot ;  trillium  novale,  April ;  snow  -  drop  tree, 
helesia  teltraptria,  mountain  cinquefoil,  potentilla  tri- 
dentata,  June. 

WHITE   FLOWERS    OF   SUMMER. 

Large  white  wake-robin,  trillium  grandiflorum, 
June  ;  Pennsylvania  anemone,  anerhona  Pennsylvania, 
June  ;  spreading  dogbane,  apocynum  androsae-mefolium, 
June  ;  dwarf  cornel,  cornel  canadensis,  June  ;  lady's 
slipper,  cypripedium  candidum,  May,  June;  ragged 
fringed  orchis,  habenaria  lacera,  July ;  grass  of  Parnas- 
sus, Parnassia  caroliniana,  July ;  false  Solomon's  seal, 
smilacina  bifolia,  May,  June ;  white  pond  lily,  nym- 
phcea  odorata,  June  ;  water  arum,  calla  palustrina, 
June ;  arrow  head ;  wax-work,  or  climbing  bittersweet, 
celastius  scandeus,  June ;  spiderwort,  tradescantia, 
virginica,  June. 

WHITE   FLOWERS   OF  AUTUMN. 

White  aster,  aster  trandescantia,  July,  August ;  white 
snakeroot,  eupatorium  ageratoides,  July,  August ;  hairy 
alum  root,  heuchera  villosa,  August,  September ;  hibis- 
cus, hibiscus  Californicus,  August ;  hibiscus,  hibiscus 
militaris,  August ;  boltonea,  boltonia  glastifolia,  Sep- 
tember, October ;  white  pond  lily,  nymphae  odorata, 
June,  September ;  pearly  everlasting,  antennaria  mar- 


BLUE  FLOWERS. 


87 


garitacea,  August ;  sweet  pepperbush,  clethra  alnifolia, 
July ;  plantain-leaved  everlasting,  antennaria  plantagin- 
ifolie,  August. 

BLUE   FLOWERS   OF   SPRING. 

Pasque  flowers,  anemone  patens,  var,  nutalliaria, 
April ;  clover  leaf,  hepatica  triloba,  April ;  bluets,  hous- 
tonia  coerulea,  April  ;  crested  iris,  iris  cristata,  May ; 
spring  iris,  iris  verna,  April ;  Jacob's  ladder,  polemo- 
nium  reptans,  May ;  violet  wood  sorrel,  oxalis  violacea, 
May ;  common  blue  violet,  viola  cucullata,  April,  June  ; 
larkspur-leaved  violet,  viola  delphinifolia,  April ;  hand- 
leaf  violet,  viola  palmata  ;  arrowhead  violet,  viola 
sagittata,  April  ;  robin's  plantain,  erigoron  bellidifolium, 
May. 

BLUE   FLOWERS   OF   SUMMER. 

Slender  blue  flag,  iris  virginica,  June  ;  large  blue 
flag,  iris  versicolar,  May,  June ;  perennial  flax,  linum 
virginianum,  June,  August ;  many-leaved  lupine,  lupi- 
nus  perennis,  June  ;  prairie  clover,  petalostemon  viola- 
ceus,  July  ;  western  spiderwort,  tradescantia  pilosa, 
June,  September  ;  common  spiderwort,  tradescantia  vir- 
ginica, May,  August ;  succory  or  chicory,  cichora  inty- 
bus,  July,  October ;  blue-eyed  grass,  sibyrinchium  bermu- 
diana,  June,  August. 

BLUE   FLOWERS   OF   AUTUMN. 

Tall  larkspur,  delphinium  exaltatum,  July ;  robin's 
plantain,  erigoron  belledifolium,  fringed  gentian,  gen- 
tiana  crinita,  September;  monkshood,  aconitum  uncin- 
atum,  June,  August ;  harebell,  campanula  rotundifolia, 
July;  blue  asters,  aster  azurens,  curtisii,  shortii,  July  ; 


88  THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

mist  flower,  concaclinium  cceruleum,  September  ;  dwarf 
larkspur,  delphinium  tricorne,  July ;  great  blue  lobelia, 
lobelia  syphilitica,  August,  September. 

YELLOW   FLOWERS   OF   SPRING. 

Dandelion,  taraxecum  dens  leonis,  April,  September  ; 
golden  fumitory,  corydalis  glaucea,  May ;  celandine 
poppy,  stylophonum  diphyllum,  May ;  celandine,  chelido- 
nium,  May,  August ;  common  yellow  violet,  viola  cana- 
densis,  May ;  downy-leaved  violet,  viola  pubescens, 
May ;  round-leaved  violet,  viola  rotundifolia,  May ; 
marsh  marigold,  caltha  palustris,  April,  May;  five- 
finger  cinquefoil,  potentilla  canadensis,  April,  July; 
vent,  corydalis  aurea,  April,  July;  early  crowfoot  or 
buttercup,  ranunculus  fascicularis,  May ;  bellwort,  uvu- 
larea  perfoliata  and  sessilifolia,  May  ;  bulbosis,  May, 
July ;  golden  club,  orontium  aquaticum,  May ;  yellow 
adder's  tongue  or  dog-tooth  violet,  erythronium  Ameri- 
canum,  May. 

YELLOW  AND   ORANGE   FLOWERS   OF   SUMMER. 

Rocky  Mountain  yellow  columbine,  aquilegia  chrysan- 
tha,  yellow-fringed  orchis,  habenaria  ciliaria,  great 
flowered  St.  John's  wort,  hypericum  perforatum,  June, 
September  ;  Canada  lily,  lilium  Canade^se,  June,  July  ; 
loosestrife,  lysimachia  lanceolata,  June,  August ;  even- 
ing primrose,  cenothera  biennis,  June  ;  bellwort,  uvul- 
aria  grandiflora,  June  ;  silver  weed,  potentilla  anserina, 
June,  September ;  star  of  Bethlehem,  ornithagulum 
umbellatum,  June  ;  St.  John's  wort,  hypericum  perfora- 
tum, June. 

5 


SPRING  FLOWERS.  89 

YELLOW    FLOWERS    FOR   AUTUMN. 

Giant  sunflower,  helicanthus  giganteus,  May ;  corn- 
flower, rudbeckia  hirta,  June,  August ;  golden  rod,  solid- 
ago,  many  species,  August,  October ;  five-finger,  poten- 
tilla  canadensis,  April,  July ;  wild  senna,  cassia  mari- 
landica,  July ;  golden  fumitory,  corydalis  aurea,  April, 
July ;  monkey  flower,  mimulus  ringens,  July,  Septem- 
ber ;  common  yellow  violet,  viola  canadensis,  May, 
August ;  dwarf  dandelion,  leontodon  autumnale,  July, 
August ;  butterfly  weed,  asclepias  tuberosa,  July,  Sep- 
tember ;  tickweed,  coreopsis  rosea,  July. 

RED   AND    PURPLE    FLOWERS    OF   SPRING. 

Rhodora  canadensis,  May  ;  pale  laurel,  kalmia  glauca, 
May,  June  ;  arethusa  bulbosa,  May ;  sheep's  laurel, 
kalmia  angustifolia,  May,  June  ;  pink  laurel,  kalmia 
latifolia,  May,  June;  Canadian  columbine,  aquilegia 
canadensis,  May;  spring  beauty,  claytonia  virginica; 
purple  lady's  slipper,  cypripedium  acaule,  May ;  shoot- 
ing star,  dodecatheon  meadia,  May,  June;  Dutch- 
man's breeches,  dicentra  eximia,  May,  August ;  spot- 
ted cranesbill,  geranium  maculatum,  May;  water  or 
purple  avens,  geum  nivale,  May ;  ground  or  moss 
pink,  phlox  subulata,  April,  May;  anemone  cylin- 
drica,  phlox  reptans,  May,  June;  three-leaved  night 
shade,  triiium  erectum,  May  ;  wake-robin,  trillium  cer- 
nuum,  May,  June  ;  painted  trillium,  trillium  erythrocar- 
pum,  May,  June ;  early  wild  rose,  rosa  blanda,  May, 
June  ;  hawthorne,  cratcegus  oxyacanthus,  May  ;  scarlet- 
fruited  thorn,  cratcegus  coccinea,  May ;  purple  violets, 
viola  cucullata,  palmata,  sagettata,  pedata,  bicolor,  can- 
ina,  stricta,  canadensis,  May,  August ;  black  thorn,  cra- 
tcegus tomentosa,  May,  June ;  pink,  silene  Pennsylva- 


9o 


THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 


nica,  May;  Maryland  pinkroot,  spigelia  Marilandica, 
June ;  May  flower,  epigea  repens,  May ;  queen  of  the 
prairie,  spiroea  lobata,  June  ;  fringed  orchis,  habenaria 
fimbriata,  June  ;  Alpine  azalea,  loiselauria  procumbens, 
June ;  orange-red  lily,  lilium  Philadelphicum,  June  ; 
Turk's  cap  lily,  lilium  superbum ;  wild  bergamot,monarda 
fistula,  July,  September  ;  Oswego  tea,  monarda  didyma, 
July,  August ;  meadow  beauty,  rhexia  virginica ;  loose- 
strife, lythrum  hyssopifolia  ;  spiked  loosestrife,  lythrum 
salicaria  ;  climbing  or  prairie  rose,  rosa  setigera,  June, 
July ;  swamp  rose,  rosa  Carolina,  June,  September ; 
dwarf  wild  rose,  rosa  lucida,  May,  July ;  sweet  brier 
rose,  rosa  rubiginosa,  June,  August ;  small  sweet  brier 
rose,  rosa  micrantha ;  andromeda,  andromeda  ligustruna, 
June,  July  ;  catchfly,  silene  inflata,  June  ;  catchfly  si- 
lene  Pennsylvanica,  June  ;  sleepy  catchfly,  silene  antir- 
rhena,  June,  September ;  azalea  nudiflora,  April,  May ; 
azalea  viscosa,  June,  July ;  rosebay,  rhododendron  max- 
imum, July  ;  wintergreen,  pyrola  elliptica,  June  ;  pyrola 
chlorantha,  June,  July ;  one-flowered  pyrola,  moneses 
uniflora,  June. 

RED  AND   PURPLE    FLOWERS   OF   AUTUMN. 

New  England  aster,  aster  Novae  Angleae  ;  violet-blue 
aster,  aster  spectabulis,  September,  November ;  green 
aster,  aster  Icevigatus  ;  hairy-leaved  aster,  cordifoleus ; 
pale-purple  aster,  miser ;  clear-blue  aster,  amethystimus  ; 
annual  aster,  linifolinis ;  swamp  rose  mallow,  hibiscus 
moschentos ;  blazing  star,  liatris  punctata ;  cardinal 
flower,  lobelia  cardinalis  ;  hardhack,  spircea  tomentosa, 
July ;  spircea  salicifolia,  July ;  blue  vervain,  verbana 
hastata,  July,  September  ;  verbena  aubletia,  July  ;  ver- 
bena virginiana,  June,  August. 


CLIMBING  PLANTS,  JLRNS. 


RED   AND   PURPLE   FLOWERS    OF   SUMMER. 

Red  columbine,  aquilegia  truncata,  ram's-head  lady's 
slipper,  cypripedium  arietinum. 

CLIMBING   PLANTS. 

Wistaria,  May ;  trumpet  creeper,  tecoma  radicans, 
July ;  wild  balsam  apple,  echinocystis  lobata,  July,  Oc- 
tober ;  common  greenbriar,  smilax  rotundifolia,  June, 
July  ;  Virgin's  bower,  dematis  virginiana,  July,  August ; 
bignonia  capreolata,  April ;  man-of-the-earth  creeper, 
ipomea  pandurata,  June,  August ;  trumpet  honeysuckle, 
lonicera  sempervirens,  May,  October ;  yellow  honey- 
suckle, lonicera  parviflora,  May,  June  ;  climbing  wax- 
work or  bittersweet,  celastrus  scandens,  June. 

FERNS. 

In  a  moist,  shady,  nook  in  gardens  with  peaty  soil, 
Maiden's  hair,  adiantium,  pedatum,  July  j  asplenium 
ebeneum,  asplenium  trichomanes,  July  ;  asplenium  ruta 
muraria,  July ;  asplenium  thelypteroides,  July ;  lady 
fern,  asplenium  felix  foemina,  July  ;  aspidium  achrosti- 
coides,  July ;  aspidium  marginale,  July  ;  aspidium  fra- 
grans  ;  aspidium  cristatum,  July  ;  aspidium  spinulosum, 
July;  aspidium  goldianum,  July,  September;  walking 
fern,  camptosurus  rhyzophyllus,  July  ;  cystopteris  bul- 
bifera,  cystopteris  fragilis,  Dicksonia  punctilobula,  July  ; 
climbing  fern,  lygodium  palmatun,  July  ;  sensitive  fern, 
onoclea  sensibilis,  July ;  cinnamon  fern,  osmunda  cim- 
monomea,  May ;  osmunda  claytoniana,  May,  fruits  as 
it  unfolds  ;  royal  fern,  osmunda  regalis  ;  woodsia  ilvan- 
sis,  June  ;  woodsia  obtusa,  July  ;  woodwardia  virginica, 
August. 

Where  there  is  room  for  forest  trees,  the  most  com- 


SCHOOL  GARDEN. 


patent  judges,  Mr.  George  B.  Emerson,  Boston  ;  Mr.  C. 
F.  Sargent,  director  of  Harvard  Botanic  Garden  ;  Dr. 
James  C.  Brown,  of  London,  England ;  Mr.  Robert 
Douglas,  of  Illinois ;  Mr.  Budd,  of  Iowa  (see  Dr.  B.  G. 
Northrop's  Economic  Tree  Planting),  recommend  the 
following,  either  from  seed  or  from  saplings. 

TREES    RECOMMENDED. 

Larch  trees  for  durability,  strength  and  resistance  to 
water.  This  tree  is  good  for  railway  sleepers,  as  it  holds 
iron  longer  than  any  other  wood,  and  does  not  corrode 
it  like  oak.  It  attains  maturity  before  the  oak.  Ten 
acres  of  larch  will  furnish  as  much  ship  timber  as 
seventy-five  acres  of  oak,  because  it  can  be  planted 
more  closely.  But  the  wood  loses  its  hardness  in  rich 
Western  loam,  or  in  too  rich  ground  anywhere. 

The  white  ash  is  hardy,  a  rapid  grower,  and  will  bear 
the  bleakest  exposures.  It  must  have  good  soil ;  but 
it  gives  excellent  wood  for  furniture  and  farm  utensils. 
The  seed  is  abundant,  and  ripens  about  the  first  of  Oc- 
tober. If  sown  in  the  fall  they  should  be  covered  with 
three  feet  of  straw ;  if  in  the  spring  the  seed  must  be 
mixed  with  damp  sand.  Green  bushes  will  protect  the 
seed  in  the  hottest  of  summer  weather. 

MAPLES. 

The  rock  maple  grows  perfectly  in  clayey  soil.  Nor- 
way maple  or  sycamore,  stands  against  Northern  blasts 
and  sea-breezes. 

Red  maple  thrives  in  dry  and  gravelly  soils. 

Maples  should  be  planted  twenty-five  feet  apart. 
Elms  should  be  planted  from  forty  to  fifty  feet  apart. 
White  oak,  chestnut,  hickory,  butternut,  white-pine  and 
willows  will  flourish  in  New  England. 


A  CATALOGUE  OF  BOOKS 

PUBLISHED  AND  FOR  SALE  BY 

WOOD  &  HOLBROOK, 

No.  15  LAIGHT  ST.,  ».  Y. 

Any  one  of  which  will  be  sent  by  mail,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  tJie  price. 


u 


Eating  for  Strength." 

BT 

M.    L.    HOLBROOK,    M.  D. 


THE  SCIENCE  OF  EATING. 

500  Receipts  for  Wholesome  Cookery. 
100        "         "     Delicious  Drinks. 
100  Ever  recurring  questions  answered. 


NOTICES    OF    THE    PRESS. 

"  The  book  is  for  the  most  part  uncommonly  apt,  coming  to  the  point  with- 
out the  slightest  circumlocution." — New  York  Tribune. 

"One  of  the  best  contributions  to  recent  hygienic  literature."— Boston  Daily 
Advertiser. 

"  What  is  particularly  attractive  about  this  book  is  the  absence  of  all  hygienic 
bigotry."-— Christian  Register. 

"  One  man's  mother  and  another  man's  wife  send  me  word  that  these  are  the 
most  wholesome  and  practical  receipts  they  ever  saw.11 — E.  R.  Branson. 

"  I  am  delighted  with  it.'1— H.  B.  Baker,  M.  D.,  Michigan  State  Board  of 
Health. 

"The  part  devoted  to  innocuous  and  wholesome  beverages  deserves  warm 
commendation.  Just  such  information  as  it  contains,  widely  disseminated,  will 
be  a  real  aid  to  the  temperance  cause;  better  than  a  thousand  overdrawn  pictures 
such  as  we  have  ad  nauseam."— Medical  and  Surgical  Reporter,  Philadelphia. 

"  It  would,  we  believe,  be  nearly  a  cure  for  dyspepsia."  —Druggists'*  Circular, 
New  York. 

"Its  author  is  so  immeasurably  in  advance  of  American  housekeepers  in 

leral     thclt  We  hOft  ^*A  maxr  \\t*   •wrirlol-'ir  onrl     fyom-iorcHir  /*rtneriltaH    " C!Ji M sfinn. 

n,  New  York. 


general,  ^that  we  hope  he  may  be  widely  and  frequently  consulted.11 — Christian 


BY   3VLA.IIL,    IFOR    OlSTEX 
Lady  A.gents  Wanted. 

WOOD  &  HOLBROOK,  No.  13  &  15  Laight  Street,  Al,  Y, 


PARTURITION  WITHOUT  PAIN; 

OR, 

A  Code  of  Directions  for  Avoiding  most  of  the 
Pains  and  Dangers  of  Child- Bearing. 

EDITED  BY  M.  L  HOLBROOK,  M.D., 

Editor  of  The  Herald  of  Health. 


WITH    A.N    ESS-A.Y 

THE      C ARE     OF 

BY  MRS.  CLEMENCE  S.  LOZIER,  M.D., 
S)ean  of  the  Nen>-"**ork  Medical  College  for  Women. 


1.  Healthfulness  of  Child- Bearing. 

2.  Dangers  of  Preventions. 

3.  Medical  Opinions  as  to  escaping  Pain. 

4.  Preparation  for  Maternity. 

5.  Exercise  during  Pregnancy. 

6.  The  Sitz  Bath  and  Bathing  generally. 

7.  What  Food  to  Eat  and  what  to  Avoid. 

8.  The  Mind  during  Pregnancy. 

9.  The  Ailments  of  Pregnancy  and  their  Remedies. 
10.  Female  Physicians,  Anaesthetics. 

To  which  are  added: 

1.  The  Husband's  Duty  to  his  Wife.  2.  Best  Age  for  Rearing  Children. 
3.  Shall  Sickly  People  become  Parents  ?  4.  Small  Families.  5.  Importance  of 
Physiological  Adaptation  of  Husband  and  Wife.  6.  Celibacy.  7.  Effects  of 
Tobacco  on  Offspring.  8.  Latest  Discoveries  as  to  the  Determining  the  Sex 
of  Offspring.  9.  Father's  vs.  Mother's  Influence  on  the  Child.  10.  Shall 
Pregnant  Women  Work?  11.  Effects  of  Intellectual  Activity  on  Number 
of  Offspring.  12.  Size  of  Pelvis,  and  its  Relation  to  Healthful  Parturition, 
etc.,  etc. 

WHAT  IS  SAID  ABOUT  "PARTURITION  WITHOUT  PAIN." 

Godey's  Lady's  Book  says :  "  We  give  our  cordial  approbation  to  this  work, 
and  would  like  to  see  it  in  the  hands  of  every  mother  in  the  land.  The  infor- 
mation it  contains  is  most  important,  and,  we  are  fully  convinced,  reliable." 

Mary  A.  Livcrmore,  editor  of  The  Woman's  Journal,  Boston,  says:  "Your 
book  can  not  be  too  highly  commended  as  containing  indispensable  knowl- 
edge for  women." 

Its  gratuitous  circulation  should  be  a  recognized  part  of  the  Woman  Move- 
ment.— Index. 

The  course  recommended  can  not  fail  to  be  beneficial.— Beecher's  Christian 
Union. 

Glad  to  see  such  books  from  the  American  press. — Methodist^  (New-York.) 

Contains  suggestions  of  the  greatest  value.— TUton's  Golden  Age. 

A  work  whose  excellence  surpasses  our  power  to  commend. — New-York 
Mail.  • 

The  price  by  mail,  $1.0O,  puts  it  within  the  reach  of  all. 

Address  WOOD  &  HOLBROOK,  Publishers, 

15  Laight  Street,  New-York. 


8. 


Tob 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 
University  of  California  Library 

or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

•  2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 
(510)642-6753 

•  1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing 
books  to  NRLF 

•  Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made 
4  days  prior  to  due  date 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


3  7f1(U 


DD20   15M  4-02 


LIBRARIES 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


